Petition against appointment of CPS by Govt maintainable – Himachal High Court
Himachal High Court today rejected an application filed by the state of Himachal before challenging the petitions filed against its order of appointments of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries stating that such petitions are not maintainable.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Sharma and Justice Bipin Singh Negi rejected the government’s argument regarding the appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS), in which the Sukhu government had termed the petition of BJP MLAs as not maintainable.
During the hearing of the CPS appointment case on Tuesday, the High Court found the petition of BJP MLAs maintainable. The court said in an order passed in the court today that petitions filed against the appointment of CPS are already fixed for hearing before a division bench on October 16.
Seeking dismissal of petitions state government had filed an application in the High Court stating that such petitions should not be admitted for hearing as these are not maintainable.
Advocate Veer Bahadur Verma, who is representing the case in the High Court on behalf of the BJP MLAs, said that the court has dismissed the government’s application.
He said that in Assam and Manipur, the High Court decision has been given in the past regarding this matter. According to this, the appointment of CPS is illegal.
It is worthwhile to mention that Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu has appointed sux party MLA before the induction of his other members of cabinet.
These include Mohan Lal Brakta from Rohru, Sunder Singh Thakur from Kullu, MLA Sanjay Awasthi from Arki, Ram Kumar Chaudhary from Doon, Ashish Butail from Palampur and Kishori Lal from Baijnath. The government has provided them with facilities ranging from offices to vehicles etc.
BJP MLA and former state president Satapal Sati and 11 other MLAs have called for the appointment of CPS to be rejected, calling it an office of profit and unconstitutional. Along with CPS, the deployment of Deputy CM has also been termed as unconstitutional. This has also been challenged in the High Court.
The last hearing in this matter was held in the High Court on October 3 regarding maintainability. In this, the court has directed all the CPS to give their respective answers in the court, because in the last hearing, it was told by the CPS that he was busy in the monsoon session of the Assembly. Because of this could not answer.
An NGO has also challenged the same matter in court. The court has clubbed the petition of NGO and BJP and is hearing it.
