Shimla, Nov 13 (IANS) In a major setback to the Congress government in the state, a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday termed the appointment of six chief parliamentary secretaries (CPS) unconstitutional and ordered their immediate removal along with withdrawing all benefits and perks.
A division bench of the High Court headed by Justice Vivek Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander delivered the order on two petitions challenging the appointment of the CPS, including a PIL by Kalpana Devi and by 10 BJP legislators, comprising Sat Pal Satti.
The High Court also set aside the Act under which the appointment of the CPS had been made. The court termed the appointment of the CPS as wastage of public funds while ordering the immediate withdrawal of all facilities extended to them.
The six CPS whose appointments were set aside were Kishori Lal (legislator from Baijnath in Kangra), Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru in Shimla), Ram Kumar (Doon in Solan), Ashish Butail (Palampur in Kangra), Sunder Thakur (Kullu) and Sanjay Awashty (Arki in Solan).
The petitioner BJP leaders contended that the appointment to the CPS posts was a burden on the state exchequer. The government defended the appointments, saying they complied with the provisions of the state Act passed by the Legislative Assembly.
“The Division Bench ruled on the matter concerning the CPS following three petitions challenging their appointments in 2023. One of the petitions was filed by at least 10 BJP MLAs,” counsel Veer Bahadur, representing the BJP MLAs, told the media.
The chief parliamentary secretaries were appointed on January 8, 2023, just before the induction of seven ministers in the Cabinet led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
Earlier on August 18, 2005, the High Court had set aside the appointment of eight CPS and four parliamentary secretaries.
Those who were removed then were Mukesh Agnihotri, currently the Deputy Chief Minister, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Anita Verma, Prem Singh, Tek Chand, Harshwardhan Chauhan, Lajja Ram and Harbhajan Singh.
The four parliamentary secretaries were Jagat Singh Negi, Surinder Kumar, Sudhir Sharma and Raghubir Singh.
Besides Agnihotri, Chauhan and Negi are currently in the Cabinet.
–IANS
vg/uk
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
