In a major jolt to the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu led HP government, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has termed the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS), as unconstitutional and ordered their removal immediately.
A division bench of the High Court headed by Justice Vivek Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander Negi pronouncing judgment on Wednesday on the petitions of 11 BJP MLAs, including Una MLA Sat Pal Satti and other petitioners, declared the appointments null and void and ordered to stop perks and benefits of six CPS with immediate effect.
The Congress government after coming to power in the state in 2022 had appointed six MLAs i.e. Kishori Lal (Baijnath), (Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru), Ram Kumar (Doon), Ashish Butail (Palampur), Sunder Thakur (Kullu) and Sanjay Awashty (Arki) as CPS, on January 8, 2023.
The H P High Court had restrained the state government from giving perks, facilities and from performing ministerial duties to six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) appointed by the Congress government, a few months back.
In an earlier order in 2005 the HP High Court had set aside the appointment of six CPS and four parliamentary secretaries appointed by the Virbhadra Singh government.
The Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur has welcomed the HP High Court order to remove six CPS.
Advocate General Anup Rattan said, “The state government would challenge the HP High Court order of terming the post of CPS and PS as unconstitutional in the Supreme Court.”
Nothing new, it was evident that the decision would be challenged and quashed in a court of law .