DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand high court on Friday expressed its displeasure over not serving notices to ex-Chief Ministers of Uttarakhand while hearing a public interest litigation opposing providence of various facilities including house and vehicle.
The court questioned as to why they were not served directly but through their private secretaries.
Kartikey Hari Gupta, counsel for the petitioner told TNIE, "The court found this kind of service strange and asked the state that why the ex-CM's have not been served personally."
The division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma has set November 18, 2019 as the date of next hearing.
The petition was filed by a non-government organization known as Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) through its chairman Avdhash Kaushal has stated that the ordinance is illegal and unconstitutional.
The court had earlier issued notices to four ex-CMs including newly appointed governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari and union human resources development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on September 16, 2019 while hearing the petition.
The petition challenged the ordinance issued by the governor in September 2019 nullifying the HC order in which the court had ruled the law providing facilities such as bungalow, vehicle, fuel, staff and other facilities unconstitutional.
The court said everybody is equal before the law courts and service through private secretary is not permissible except Governor and President of India. In this case, only Bhagat Singh Koshiyari could have been served through the private secretary and rest all were required to be served court notice personally.
Earlier, on September 5, 2019, Uttarakhand government in a move to nullify Uttarakhand high court’s directions regarding facilities to ex-chief ministers got the approval of the governor of Uttarakhand on the ordinance.