In a major setback to the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine ahead of the Assembly polls, 24 MlAs of Punjab will lose their Cabinet rank, as the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday quashed the appointments of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) in the State.
To placate some MlAs, the Punjab Government had just three months back appointed seven new Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.
The orders came on a petition filed in Public Interest by Advocate Jagmohan Singh Bhatti, wherein the petitioner had sought directions for holding the posts of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries "illegal" and "unconstitutional".
Bhatti had been contesting against the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries and Chief Parliamentary Secretaries for long and during the first tenure of the present SAD+BJP Government, the petition filed against the appointment of CPS could not have reached to a conclusion during the tenure of the Government and later was dismissed for being infructuous.
The post of CPS is one step lower than a Minister and ruling party legislators are appointed on these posts by various State Governments to accommodate MlAs since all cannot be made Ministers due to a statutory ceiling of 15 per cent on ministerial berths vis-a-vis the respective Assembly strength.
The post of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries was quashed by Himachal Pradesh High Court in 2005. The Kolkata High Court and Bombay High Court too had declared the appointments of CPS as unconstitutional.
With the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the CPS, who are set to lose their Cabinet rank are Nand lal, Sant Balvir Singh Ghunas, Des Raj Dhugga, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, Mantar Singh Brar, Bibi Mohinder Kaur Josh, Avinash Chander, KD Bhadari, Amarpal Singh Ajanala, Gurcharan Singh Babehali, Virsa Singh Valtoha, NK Sharma, Nasaara Khatoon and Navjot Kaur Sidhu.
Others include Parkash Chand Garg, Pawan Kumar Teenu, Sarup Chand Singla, Som Parkash and the recently appointed Gurtej Singh Ghuriana, Manjit Singh Mianwind, Darshan Singh Shiwalik and Gurpratap Singh Wadala of Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD) and Sukhjeet Kaur Sahi and Seema Rani.
Reacting to the court ruling, Punjab Congress president and former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the order was "not unexpected as the Badal Government had failed to follow proper procedure before appointing them".
"Obviously, the Badal Government tried to circumvent the constitutional and legislative procedure by appointing the CPSs without following proper procedure and hence these were expected to be scrapped," he said in a statement.
Elections to the 117-member Punjab Assembly are expected to be held in February next year.