Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has received a big blow from the High Court. The High Court has ordered the removal of all the six Principal Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) of the Sukhu government. Orders have also been issued to immediately withdraw all government facilities of the CPS. A bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin Chandra Negi delivered the judgment saying that the CPS should be removed from office but he will remain an MLA.
He challenged the CPS
According to information, Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu made 6 Congress MLAs as Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS). Apart from Kalpana, 11 MLAs from the state’s main opposition party BJP and the People for Responsible Governance organization also filed a petition in the High Court calling the appointment of CPS unconstitutional. On his plea, the High Court had in January passed an interim order to prevent the CPS from exercising ministerial powers.
The state government has also approached the Supreme Court in this matter and requested to club it with the CPS cases pending in the Supreme Court of other states. But, the Supreme Court rejected the request of the state government and ordered the case to be heard in the High Court.
These Congress MLAs formed the CPS
The six Congress MLAs appointed as CPS by CM Sukhu include Sundar Singh Thakur of Kullu, Sanjay Awasthi of Arki, Ashish Butel of Palampur, Ram Kumar Chaudhary of Doon and MLA Kishori Lal of Baijanath. The government is giving them cars, offices, staff and the same salary as ministers.
Limitation of ministers, hence adjustment of MLAs
As per the amendment to Article 164 of the Constitution of India, a state cannot have more than 15% of its total number of MLAs as ministers. The Himachal Legislative Assembly has 68 MLAs, so a maximum of 12 ministers can be made here.
The Supreme Court has declared the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries illegal
The petition states that the acts relating to the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries in Himachal and Assam are similar. The Supreme Court has declared as illegal the law relating to the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries in Assam and Manipur. Knowing this, the Congress government of Himachal appointed its MLAs as CPS.
This has increased the total number of ministers and CPS in the state by over 15%. During the hearing of this case, the High Court made all the Congress MLAs appointed as CPS personal respondents on the petitioner’s appeal.
Salary and allowances per month Rs. 2.25 lakhs
In the petition filed in the High Court, it was alleged that all the 6 Congress MLAs appointed as CPS are posted on lucrative posts. He gets Rs 2 lakh 20 thousand salary and allowances per month. This means that these MLAs are enjoying the same salary and other facilities as the state ministers. The petition also sought repeal of the Himachal Parliamentary Secretary (Appointment, Salary, Allowances, Powers, Privileges and Facilities) Act, 2006.
CPS scrapped, welcome move: Bindal
Bharatiya Janata Party state president Rajeev Bindal said that the important decision of the Himachal Pradesh High Court proved how the present Congress government of Himachal Pradesh spent two years illegally appointing Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. Himachal Pradesh’s continued misappropriation of funds, abuse of power, making 6 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries and giving them the same powers as Ministers was illegal and against the Constitution. Bindal said we welcome the court’s decision directing all the six principal parliamentary secretaries to resign from their posts.
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