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Himachal HC to hear plea against CPS appointment on April 2
The case was heard before the division bench of justice Vivek Singh Thakur and justice B C Negi on Tuesday
The Himachal Pradesh high court has set the next date of hearing on April 2 for a petition challenging the appointment of chief parliamentary secretaries. The case was heard before the division bench of justice Vivek Singh Thakur and justice B C Negi on Tuesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s 12 BJP MLAs, including former leader Satpal Satti, four-time legislator from Una, had challenged the appointment of CPS. In the petition, the appointment of CPS Sanjay Awasthi from Arki assembly constituency, Sundar Singh from Kullu, Ram Kumar from Doon, Mohan Lal Brakta from Rohru, Ashish Butail from Palampur and Kishori Lal from Baijnath was challenged.
The Opposition BJP, while challenging the appointment of the six chief parliamentary secretaries, had maintained in the petition that there was no provision for the post in the Constitution and under Article 164, not more than 15% of the House can get cabinet ranks, which is 12 in Himachal. But after the appointment of six CPS, this number reaches 18, the petition alleged.
In a bid to buy time, the Congress government filed the transfer petition in the Supreme Court , requesting that the petition of Kalpana Devi vs government of Himachal Pradesh and others, Satpal Singh Satti vs government of Himachal and others, and NGO People for Responsible Governance vs state government and others, be transferred to the apex court.
In an interim order on January 1, the Himachal Pradesh high court had debarred six CPS appointed by chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu from availing the facilities given to cabinet rank ministers.
CPS have been allotted offices in the Himachal Pradesh secretariat apart from staff and the official department from the general administration department besides the departments attached.
