CHANDIGARH: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday set aside the appointment of six chief parliamentary secretaries (CPS), declaring it “unconstitutional” and ordered their immediate removal along with the associated benefits and perks.
Two petitions — a PIL by Kalpana Devi and another by 11 BJP MLAs — had been filed challenging the appointments.
A division bench of Justices Vivek Thakur and Bipin Chander gave its verdict and set aside the Act under which the appointment of the CPS had been made. Terming the appointments “wastage of public funds” the bench ordered immediate withdrawal of all facilities extended to them.
“The office created by the impugned Act, in fact, performs functions ancillary to and incidental to those of the political executive. In fact, what is prohibited and limited directly by Article 164(1-A) of the Constitution has been sought to be done indirectly by the state legislature. If there is a constitutional provision inhibiting the constitutional authority from doing an act, such provision cannot be allowed to be defeated by adoption of any subterfuge,’’ said the HC in its 33-page order.
It ruled, “Evidently, the distinction attempted to be portrayed between Chief Parliamentary Secretary/Parliamentary Secretary and Minister is artificial.”
The six CPS whose appointment has been ordered are Kishori Lal, MLA from Baijnath in Kangra; Mohan Lal Brakta, MLA from Rampur in Shimla; Ram Kumar, MLA from Doon in Solan; Ashish Butail, MLA from Palampur; Sunder Thakur, MLA from Kullu and Sanjay Awashty, Arki MLA.