Government counters petition against appointment of Dy CM, CPSes

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, August 31

The state government has raised the issue of maintainability of a petition challenging the appointment of the Deputy Chief Minister and six Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSes) before the High Court of Himachal.

Today, the petition was listed before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel. During the course of hearing, the court was informed that the state had filed an application challenging the maintainability of the petition. Advocate General Anup Kumar Rattan contended before the court that the petition was not maintainable. However, on the other hand, Senior Advocate Satya Pal Jain, appearing for the petitioners, contended that the petition was maintainable and the appointment of six CPSes was in violation of the constitutional provisions and was bad in the eyes of law.

Senior Advocate Sharwan Dogra, appearing for Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri, contended that the petitioners had wrongly challenged his appointment. He said that Agnihotri’s appointment was well within the constitutional provisions. After hearing all parties, the court listed the matter for September 18.