Setback for Sukhu government: Himachal Pradesh HC quashes appointment of 6 MLAs as CPSs
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ November 13,2024
Himachal Pradesh High Court today quashed the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) and declared the law under which the appointments were made void.
A division bench of the high court comprising Justices Vivek Thakur and B C Negi also directed that all the facilities and privileges of these CPSs be withdrawn with immediate effect.
“The impugned Act is quashed as being beyond the legislative competence of the state legislature and consequently all subsequent actions, including the appointment six CPS are held and declared illegal, unconstitutional, void ab initio and accordingly set aside,” the order said.
The court declared the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, salaries, allowance, powers, privileges and Amendments) Act, 2006 as void.
Chief Minister Sukhu had appointed six CPSs — Sanjay Awasthi from Arki Assembly, Sunder Singh from Kullu, Ram Kumar from Doon, Mohan Lal Barakta from Rohru, Ashish Butail from Palampur and Kishori Lal from Baijnath — on January 8, 2023, ahead of cabinet expansion.
BJP leader Satpal Singh Satti and 11 of his party MLAs had filed a petition before the court, alleging that no such post of CPS exists under the Constitution or under any statute or Act passed by Parliament. It was contended in the petition that the appointment to the posts of CPS is a burden on the state exchequer.
The petition stated that according to the 91st constitutional amendment, the number of ministerial berths was capped at 15% of the House strength. As per it, there are 12 ministers in the state in consonance with the constitutional amendment as the strength of the assembly is 68 in the state.
After day-to-day hearing of cases seeking quashing of appointments of CPS, the court had concluded the hearing in June and reserved the judgment.
Setback for Sukhu government: Himachal Pradesh HC quashes appointment of 6 MLAs as CPSs. Meanwhile, State Advocate General Anup Ratna said that the government will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.
