Shimla, Nov 13 (PTI) In a jolt to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed the appointment of six chief parliamentary secretaries and declared the law under which they were appointed void.
A division bench of the court comprising Justices Vivek Thakur and Bipin Chander Negi also directed that all the facilities and privileges of the six chief parliamentary secretaries be withdrawn with immediate effect.
The court declared the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances, Powers, Privileges and Amenities) Act, 2006 as void.
Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Negi said the officials are usurpers of public office and all facilities extended to them be withdrawn with immediate effect.
Sukhu had appointed the six chief parliamentary secretaries — Sanjay Awasthi, the MLA from the Arki Assembly constituency, Sunder Singh from Kullu, Ram Kumar from Doon, Mohan Lal Barakta from Rohru, Ashish Butail from Palampur and Kishori Lal from Baijnath — on January 8, 2023, ahead of his cabinet expansion.
“The impugned Act is quashed as being beyond the legislative competence of the state legislature and consequently, all subsequent actions, including the appointments of the six CPS are held and declared illegal, unconstitutional, void ab initio and, accordingly, set aside,” the order said.
“Since the Act is void ab initio, the respondents (CPS) are usurpers of public office right from their inception and thus, their continuance in the office, based on illegal and unconstitutional appointments, is completely impermissible and from now onwards, they cease to be holders of the office of the CPS with all the consequences,” it added.
The protection granted to such appointments to the office of chief parliamentary secretary or parliamentary secretary according to section 3 read with section 3(d) of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Members (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1971 is also declared illegal and unconstitutional and thus, a claim of such protection under section 3(d) is inconsequential, and natural consequences and legal implications whereof shall follow forthwith in accordance with law, the order said.
After day-to-day hearings of cases seeking quashing of the appointments of the chief parliamentary secretaries, the court concluded the proceedings and reserved its verdict in June.
Two separate pleas were filed by Sat Pal Singh Satti, 10 other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs and Kalpana Devi, demanding quashing of the Act. The BJP MLAs had contended that no such post of CPS exists under the Constitution or any Act passed by Parliament.
It was also averred in the petition filed by the BJP leaders that according to the 91st constitutional amendment, the number of ministerial berths was capped at 15 per cent of the House strength and the maximum number of ministers in case of Himachal Pradesh was 12, but after the induction of the six chief parliamentary secretaries, it had increased to 18.
Sukhu said the judgment would be studied and the cabinet would decide the next step after discussions.
In a statement, Leader of Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Jai Ram Thakur said the decision to appoint the MLAS as chief parliamentary secretaries was taken by Sukhu in an “unconstitutional and dictatorial manner and the BJP demands that the membership of all the legislators appointed as CPS be cancelled”.
“When we were in the government in 2017, this issue also came to our mind whether CPS should be appointed or not. But considering it unconstitutional, we did not make any such appointment,” the BJP leader said.
It was for the second time that the appointments of chief parliamentary secretaries or parliamentary secretaries have been quashed in the hill state.
On August 18, 2005, the high court quashed the appointments of eight chief parliamentary secretaries and four parliamentary secretaries.
Those affected by the verdict in 2005 were Mukesh Agnihotri, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Anita Verma, Prem Singh, Tek Chand, Harsh Wardhman Chauhan, Lajja Ram and Harbhajan Singh (chief parliamentary secretaries) and Jagat Singh Negi, Surinder Kumar, Sudhir Sharma and Raghuvir Singh (parliamentary secretaries). PTI BPL RC
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