Further proceedings with regard to the appointments will be done only with the permission of the court
Hyderabad High Court
Hyderabad: Newly appointed parliamentary secretaries were stumped by the High Court stay on their positions. The court said on Friday that further proceedings with regard to the appointments will be done only with the permission of the court.
The six MLAs who were appointed parliamentary secretaries were given minister of state rank since they could not be accommodated in Chandrasekhar Rao Cabinet due to constitutional limitations on the size of the ministry.
The parliamentary secretaries were on their way to the first TRS political training camp at Nagarjunasagar when they were informed of the order. “I don’t have complete details of the High Court order. The government will take care of it and may go in for appeal,” said Mr Jalagam Venkat Rao, parliamentary secretary, told Deccan Chronicle.
The six parliamentary secretaries are: Mr D. Vinay Bhaskar and Jalagam Venkat Rao (attached to the CMO), Mr V. Srinivas Goud (Deputy CM, revenue), Mr G. Kishore Kumar (Deputy CM, medical and health), Mr V. Satish Kumar (Education) and Ms Kova Lakshmi (Agriculture).
“The parliamentary secretary post is nothing new. It was in vogue at the Centre, in Delhi and other states. The government will take care of the issue,” Mr Srinivas Goud said.
Telugu Desam legislator A. Revanth Reddy, one of the petitioners, welcomed the order and said it was time the Chief Minister “opened his eyes and followed democratic norms.”
“It’s not KCR’s rule, it is democratic rule that has to be followed. What KCR did was gross misuse of power to accommodate defectors and rehabilitate others with Cabinet rank. There is a restriction on the number of Cabinet berths. Goa and Himachal Pradesh too have faced similar action by the courts,” he said.
Appointments contrary to provisions in Act, says HC:
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, while granting the interim order, said that the appointments of parliament secretaries were contrary to provisions of the Act brought out by the government for making the appointments.
The bench said that the Act specified the power of appointment to be with the Chief Minister, whereas the appointment order had been issued in the name of the Governor, which is not permissible under the law.
Advocate general K. Ramakrishna Reddy said the government would give an undertaking for recovery of allowances given to the Parliament Secretaries in case the petitioners succeeded in the case.
He urged the bench to grant permission to rectify the defects in the Act and suspend the operation of the interim order till reopening of the court in June. The bench refused the request of the AG by observing that: “Balance of convenience in favour of the petitioner and recovery is not that easy as said by the AG.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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