Don’t approve appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries: Shaktisinh to Governor citing SC order

Gandhinagar: Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil has in a letter to Governor claimed that appointment of Parliamentary Secretary is unconstitutional as per the latest order of the Supreme Court (PIL 30/2005). Gohil claimed that as per the Supreme Court order, state governments have no power to pass law for appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries.

Gohil said he has attached the Supreme Court order’s copy(2017 SSC page no. SC 813) in his letter to Governor and requested that he should see that unconstitutional appointments of parliamentary secretaries are not made in Gujarat.

Gohil said the State government decision becomes order only when Governor signs it and therefore the Governor should refrain from signing any decision on appointment of parliamentary secretary in the State as ‘it is termed unconstitutional by Supreme Court in its 26 July 2017 order’.

It should be mentioned here that as per a law passed by Gujarat Assembly, the State government can appoint parliamentary secretaries. There’s established practice of giving deputy minister status to parliamentary secretaries in Gujarat.Parliamentary secretaries are appointed from ruling party lot of MLAs. They are allotted departments to help the senior ministers. They enjoy all perks and status of deputy minister.

Gohil refers to the Supreme Court verdict delivered by the bench headed by J.Chelameswar in which Assam Parliamentary Secretaries Act 2004 was declared unconstitutional. However many states are continuing to have parliamentary secretaries and in some case it has been challenged in relevant high court(i.e. in Meghalaya).

DeshGujarat