Himachal Pradesh High Court sets aside appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries

In a landmark judgment, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) and declared the law under which the appointments were made as void.

The verdict was passed by the Division Bench comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander Negi. It also directed that all facilities and privileges of these CPSs be withdrawn with immediate effect.

The court declared the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances, Powers, Privileges and Amenities) Act, 2006, as void, saying enacting the same was beyond the legislative competence of the state legislature.

In January last year, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had appointed six Congress MLAs as CPSs. They were Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Ashish Butail (Palampur), Ram Kumar Chaudhary (Doon), Kishori Lal (Baijnath), Sanjay Awasthi (Arki) and Sunder Singh Thakur (Kullu). Eleven BJP MLAs then filed a PIL challenging the appointments.

The Bench observed, “Since the impugned Act is void ab initio, the six CPSs are usurpers of public office right from their inception and thus, their continuance in office, based on their illegal and unconstitutional appointment, is completely impermissible in law.”

“Accordingly, from now onwards, they shall cease to be holder of the office(s) of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries with all the consequences,” it said. Sukhu said the judgment would be studied and the Cabinet would decide the next step after talks. Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said the membership of MLAs appointed as CPS should be cancelled.