GUWAHATI: Opposition Congress in Manipur has described as “illegal” the appointment of “disqualified” Minister Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh as advisor to the Chief Minister.
“The Chief Minister of Manipur is pleased to appoint Th Shyamkumar as advisor to Chief Minister, Manipur, with immediate effect. The terms and conditions of the appointment shall be notified separately,” an order, dated April 7 and issued by the state’s Chief Secretary Dr. J Suresh Babu, reads.
The veracity of the order, however, could not be confirmed.
After hearing a disqualification petition in March, the Supreme Court had stripped Shyamkumar of his office and banned his entry into the Assembly. Later, the Speaker had disqualified him as a member of the Assembly.
Opposition Congress claimed Shyamkumar’s appointment was illegal under Article 361B of the Constitution.
Article 361B says: “A member of a House belonging to any political party who is disqualified under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule (of Constitution) shall also be disqualified to hold any remunerative political post for duration of the period commencing from the date of his disqualification till the date on which the term of his office as such member would expire or till the date on which he contests an election to a House and is declared elected, whichever is earlier.”
The Congress was critical of Governor Najma Heptullah and the state Cabinet over the appointment.
“Manipur Governor too appears to have consented to the order, and thereby, further destroying our Indian Constitution. Further, the Manipur Cabinet must clarify on why it did allow such illegal and unconstitutional appointment,” Congress spokesman Ningombam Bupenda Meitei tweeted.
He said the state government must answer as to why it did not notify the terms and conditions of the said appointment to date.
“How long will the BJP government take to release the notification of the said order on the terms and conditions of the said appointment? Are they not doing it to get away violation of Article 361B of the Constitution?” Meitei asked.
Shyamkumar was elected in the 2017 elections on a Congress ticket. However, he switched to the BJP even before being sworn in as a Member of the Assembly. The BJP, which went on to form a coalition government, had inducted Shyamkumar into the state Cabinet.
Disqualification petitions against seven other Congress MLAs, who sided with the BJP, are pending in the Speaker’s tribunal.