Supreme Court quashes Himachal’s appointment of six Parliament secretaries | India News – Times of India

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh HC on Wednesday quashed the appointment of six Congress MLAs as chief parliamentary secretaries by CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government ahead of the state’s cabinet expansion on January 8, 2023.
Declaring these appointments unconstitutional, the court held the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointments, Salaries, Allowances, Powers, Privileges and Facilities) Act, 2006 “null and void ab initio” – invalid from the outset – and asserted that it fell outside the legislature. of the state assembly.
HC ordered immediate withdrawal of all privileges and facilities granted to six CPSs.
The judgment came out of two petitions, including a PIL filed by 10 BJP lawmakersarguing that the appointments placed an excessive burden on the state’s financial resources. In response, the government defended the CPS’s positions, claiming they were in line with the provisions of state law passed by the assembly.