SC stays disqualification of six chief parliamentary secretaries in Himachal

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the disqualification of six chief parliamentary secretaries of Himachal Pradesh appointed by the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in the state. The apex court stayed the direction of the Himachal Pradesh high court declaring the power to appoint the chief parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary secretaries in the state as unconstitutional.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and justice Sanjay Kumar said there would be no further proceedings in pursuant to the Himachal Pradesh high court order quashing the appointment of six MLAs as chief parliamentary secretaries. It, however, made it clear that no more appointments would be made by the state government, saying it would be contrary to the law.
The top court also issued notice to BJP leader Kalpana Devi, who had moved the high court against the appointment of the six chief parliamentary secretaries and sought her response within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.
It tagged the matter with the pending petitions in the apex court on the issue.
Earlier, the Sukhu government had moved the Supreme Court, seeking authorisation of the appointment of six CPSes, which was quashed by the high court on November 13 for being illegal and unconstitutional. The high court division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipen Chander Negi had invalidated the appointments of CPSes Sanjay Awasthi, Kishori Lal, Ram Kumar, Mohan Bragta, Sundar Singh Thakur, and Ashish Butail.
In its appeal before the apex court, the state government said the high court order was “bad in law” and sought a stay on its direction.
“The legal consequence would be that six chief parliamentary secretaries, who are also MLAs, are likely to face disqualification under Article 192 of the Constitution as the protection granted to them from the office of profit norms has been taken away, without adjudication, causing political instability,” the appeal filed by the state government said.
The Congress unleased its top legal eagles to defend its government. Kapil Sibal represented the Sukhu government, while his former cabinet colleague Anand Sharma turned a lawyer for the first time in 27 years to defend MLA Ashish Butail, one of the CPSes. Abhishek Manu Singhvi also appeared on behalf of the affected party.