Shimla: After appointing half a dozen deputy Chief Ministers in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has withdrawn its petition challenging the appointment of a deputy CM in Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP had questioned the deputy CM’s appointment on the grounds that his oath violated constitutional provisions. The petitioners had also challenged the appointment of chief parliamentary secretaries.
BJP MLAs, however, informed the court Wednesday that they would not want to press the application against the appointment of deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, a five-term MLA from Haroli in Una district. Later, the petitioners withdrew the application.
The petitioners include former BJP state president and Una MLA Satpal Singh Satti, former speaker HP Vidhan Sabha and Sulah MLA Vipin Singh Parmar, Shri Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma, Churah MLA and former deputy speaker Hansraj.
The move comes over a week after BJP appointed two deputy CMs each in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
One of the petitioners’ advocates, Virbahadur Verma, said, “Our clients instructed us not to press the matter against deputy CM forward. As far as CPS is concerned, we have recorded our arguments and the matter is still pending.”
The state’s Advocate General (AG) Anup Rattan said, “Petitioner Satpal Satti’s advocate submitted that he would not press the petition against the appointment of deputy CM anymore and they withdrew the petition and applications. It seems the matter was politically motivated. BJP made deputy CMs in three states (Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan) and it is a matter of convenience. I feel this was a misuse of the judicial platform. The CPS matter is still in the court and the next hearing in this matter is on Jan 2.”
When asked about the reason behind withdrawal of the petition, Satpal Satti told media persons, “We discussed this matter with party leaders and legal experts. There were several technical points and we decided not to go ahead with this.”
When asked whether it has something to do with the recent appointment of six deputy CMs in three states, Satti and one of the other petitioners, Randhir Sharma, told media persons, “No, it has nothing to do with this. When we filed the petition, we had deputy CMs in other states. But after discussing the matter with legal experts, we decided to withdraw it but the case against CPS is still in the court.”
One of the petitioners, speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, said: “Most of us were not convinced by this (the petition). We were ready to challenge the appointment of CPS but later the party decided to challenge the appointment of the Deputy CM too.”
“We also asserted that the BJP, too, has deputy CMs in the different states, but the legal team wanted to challenge it, so we signed the petition,” he added.
Speaking to ThePrint, Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri said that this was a “baseless case”.
“Had they not withdrawn it, the court would have dismissed it. But this was ironic, a national political party having a deputy CM in some states is challenging the same in other states where they are in Opposition,” he said.
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What the petition said
In its petition in May, the BJP MLAs had argued that the act of creating the “office/post/status” of a deputy CM is arbitrary and not authorised under the Constitution.
“Chief minister of Himachal took the oath of office on December 11, 2022 and the respondent no. 4 (Mukesh Agnihotri) took the oath as deputy CM on the same day,” read the petition, a copy of which is with ThePrint.
Under Article 164(3) of the Constitution, which deals with the oath-taking of state ministers, a deputy CM cannot be sworn in, the BJP had said. According to the party, he could have been administered the oath as either chief minister or cabinet minister, but not as deputy CM.
“Neither any provision of the Constitution of India nor any statutory enactment nor any executive instruction contains any provision which empowers the state government to create the office/post/status of the deputy chief minister in the state,” the petition, which was withdrawn Wednesday, reads.
“As the creation of the office/post/status of the deputy chief minister is without any authority of law, the same needs to be declared arbitrary and the creation of the said office/post/status of the deputy chief minister may be set aside,” it adds
While the tradition of appointing deputy CMS in other states is an old one, Agnihotri is the first deputy CM of Himachal Pradesh. Anugrah Narayan Sinha became the deputy CM of Bihar in 1946 and remained in the post till 1957.
States including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh currently have deputy CMs.
Such cases have also been filed in other states, but this is the first time that legislators of a national political party have gone to court.
In 2019, the appointment of Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala was also challenged in the state HC. In 2018, a similar petition was filed in Karnataka High Court too, which was dismissed. On 16 December, an advocate filed a PIL in Rajasthan High Court against the appointment of a deputy CM.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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