Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court today sought response of the state government on a plea challenging the appointments of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) in the state.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sabina and Justice Satyen Vaidya passed the order on a petition filed by Kalpana Devi of Mandi alleging that the CPS is not applicable under the Constitution of India or under any law or act passed by the Parliament of India. No positions exist for
It was alleged that the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) was in violation of constitutional provisions and bad in the eyes of law. It was argued that the appointment to the posts of CPS is a burden of Rs 10 crore annually on the state exchequer.
It was also stated in the petition that the 91st Constitutional Amendment has limited the number of ministerial posts to 15 per cent of the strength of the House. According to this, the state has 12 ministers as per the constitutional amendment as the strength of the state assembly is 68.
It was alleged that he has been appointed as CPS, who is actually a minister without calling and enjoys all the powers and facilities of the ministers.
The petitioner, in the petition filed on January 8, 2023, said that the state government has appointed six CPS Sanjay Awasthi (Arki assembly constituency), Sundar Singh (Kullu), Ram Kumar (Doon), Mohan Lal Barkata (Rohru), Ashish . Butail (Palampur) and Kishori Lal (Baijnath) against the mandate of the Constitution of India.
During the hearing, the court was told that a similar petition is already pending in the court. The court had ordered to tag this petition with the earlier petition.
burden on exchequer
It was alleged that the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries was in violation of constitutional provisions.
The appointment is a burden of Rs 10 crore annually on the state exchequer.
CPS are actually ministers without calling and enjoy all the powers and facilities of ministers
