In a major embarrassment to the Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday set aside the appointments of four BJP MlAs as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries.
The Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) include BJP Badkhal MlA Seema Trikha, Radaur MlA Shyam Singh Rana, Hisar MlA Kamal Gupta and Asandh MlA Bakhshish Singh Virk.
Allowing a petition filed in public interest against the appointments, a Division Bench of the High Court, however, gave a relief of three weeks for the operation of the order on the State’s request.
The PIl challenging the appointments was filed by a lawyer, Jagmohan Singh Bhatti, submitting that the appointments were unconstitutional.
The appointments of four CPS were made in July 2015 by the BJP-led Haryana Government. Earlier, appointments of CPS made by the previous Parkash Singh Badal-led Government in Punjab were also quashed by the High Court in August 2016.
Significantly, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries are often 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.
lawyer, Bhatti had contended that the State was spending lakhs of rupees of public money on paying for the salaries, perks and facilities of these secretaries, who were de-facto Ministers.
However, the Haryana Government had countered the claims saying the four Chief Parliamentary Secretaries were not getting the salary or allowances provided to Ministers and were also not included in the category of Ministers.
The State had argued the four were appointed in public interest to assist the Ministers in view of their multifarious duties.
Haryana’s Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan, while talking to the mediapersons on Wednesday said the State Government would challenge the HC order by filing a special leave petition before the Apex Court within next three weeks.
leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and Indian National lok Dal’s senior leader Abhay Chautala has welcomed the verdict of High Court. Chautala said the BJP-led Haryana Government was wasting public money by appointing CPS and providing them various facilities.