The legal battle over the Lokayukta's appointment in Gujarat got a new twist on Monday with a public interest litigation (PIL) being filed in the Gujarat high court, seeking that the Centre call back Gujarat governor Dr Kamla.

Asok Pande, who says he is an advocate in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court and president of the Hindu Personal Law Board, has appealed to the court to issue directions to the President and the prime minister to recall Dr Kamla Pande claimed that Dr Kamla's appointment as governor was illegal and she should be removed from the office at the earliest. He claims to have filed nearly 50 PILs in different high courts on various issues.

The PIL contends that the governor could not have appointed justice R A Mehta as Lokayukta without advice of the council of ministers and the chief minister Narendra Modi. "Her gesture is unconstitutional and she should be recalled," the petition says.

Citing a detailed discussion of the Constituent Assembly, he has argued that chief minister's prior consent is must for the appointment of any person as governor. The petition says that the Gujarat governor should be removed because the Centre had not sought Modi's opinion before appointing Dr Kamla. Her appointment should be declared void "ab initio", meaning it should be treated as invalid from the outset.

The PIL has made the President, prime minister and the governor as respondents along with the secretaries of various departments. Recently, during the hearing of state government's plea challenging justice Mehta's appointment as Lokayukta, the governor was made a party respondent, but HC thought it fit to remove her name from the list of respondents.