Meghalaya HC reserves order on Parliamentary Secretaries

The Meghalaya High Court on Thursday reserved its judgment on the legality of appointing legislators as Parliamentary Secretaries in the state.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Ved Prakash Vaid reserved the order at the end of the hearing in the matter.

State resident Madal Sumer had filed a Public Interest Litigation and claimed that the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries in the state was "extraconstitutional and illegal".

"There is no law in the country that empowers the Chief Minister to appoint anybody to any post or administer oath of office to anybody.

"With the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries and administration of oath of office to all of them, the Chief Minister has corrupted his chair (he occupies) and misused his office illegally and unconstitutionally," Sumer said.

On July 26, the Supreme Court had declared as unconstitutional a law enacted by Assam in 2004 that allowed the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries in the rank of Minister of State.

An apex court bench of Justice J. Chelameswar, Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice A.M. Sapre struck down the Assam Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004, and noted that Article 194 of the Indian Constitution "does not expressly authorise the state legislature to create offices such as the one in question".

--IANS

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