Shimla, Nov 13 (IANS) In a major setback to the Congress government in the state, a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday termed the appointment of six chief parliamentary secretaries (CPS) unconstitutional and ordered their immediate removal along with withdrawing all benefits and perks.

A division bench of the High Court headed by Justice Vivek Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander delivered the order on two petitions challenging the appointment of the CPS, including a PIL by Kalpana Devi and by 10 BJP legislators, comprising Sat Pal Satti.

The High Court also set aside the Act under which the appointment of the CPS had been made. The court termed the appointment of the CPS as wastage of public funds while ordering the immediate withdrawal of all facilities extended to them.

The six CPS whose appointments were set aside were Kishori Lal (legislator from Baijnath in Kangra), Mohan Lal Brakta (Rohru in Shimla), Ram Kumar (Doon in Solan), Ashish Butail (Palampur in Kangra), Sunder Thakur (Kullu) and Sanjay Awashty (Arki in Solan).

The petitioner BJP leaders contended that the appointment to the CPS posts was a burden on the state exchequer. The government defended the appointments, saying they complied with the provisions of the state Act passed by the Legislative Assembly.

“The Division Bench ruled on the matter concerning the CPS following three petitions challenging their appointments in 2023. One of the petitions was filed by at least 10 BJP MLAs,” counsel Veer Bahadur, representing the BJP MLAs, told the media.

The chief parliamentary secretaries were appointed on January 8, 2023, just before the induction of seven ministers in the Cabinet led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Earlier on August 18, 2005, the High Court had set aside the appointment of eight CPS and four parliamentary secretaries.

Those who were removed then were Mukesh Agnihotri, currently the Deputy Chief Minister, Thakur Singh Bharmouri, Anita Verma, Prem Singh, Tek Chand, Harshwardhan Chauhan, Lajja Ram and Harbhajan Singh.

The four parliamentary secretaries were Jagat Singh Negi, Surinder Kumar, Sudhir Sharma and Raghubir Singh.

Besides Agnihotri, Chauhan and Negi are currently in the Cabinet.