Shimla, Nov 13 (IANS) Himachal Pradesh Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Jai Ram Thakur on Monday hailed the judgment of the High Court to declare the appointment of six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs) as “unconstitutional” along with withdrawing all benefits and perks.

Thakur in a statement said the decision of their appointment was taken by Chief Minister Sukhwinder Sukhu in an “unconstitutional and dictatorial manner”.

“The BJP demands the membership of all assembly members appointed to the posts of CPS should also be declared null and void. Despite the clear orders of the Supreme Court and the High Court, these appointments were made by the government in a dictatorial manner to keep its MLAs happy. The government had taken this decision outside the ambit of the Constitution,” the former Chief Minister said.

Thakur said the party was against the decision to form the CPS from the very first day.

“We raised our voice against their appointment, went to the court and challenged the government’s decision. The government used the resources of the state at every level to justify this unconstitutional decision. Crores of rupees of the state were spent in paying fees of lawyers to question the legitimacy of the petitions filed by our party leaders,” he added.

In a major setback to the Congress government, a division of Justice Vivek Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander gave the order on two petitions challenging the appointment of the CPS, including a PIL by Kalpana Devi and 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 a waste 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 CPS was 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.