The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded immediate recovery of public money spent on salaries and benefits of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) following the recent Himachal Pradesh High Court verdict declaring their appointments unconstitutional.
Lok Sabha MP Dr. Rajiv Bhardwaj, while talking to the media after meeting Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla at the Raj Bhawan, described the High Court verdict as “historic,” and asserted that the appointments of CPS by the state government had put an undue financial burden on the state. “From the day these appointments were made by the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government, the BJP opposed them and said these were an unnecessary expenditure for the state,” he said.
He argued that all public money spent on the CPS should be refunded to the government exchequer, terming the expenditure as misuse of taxpayers’ money. “The money spent on salaries, allowances and other benefits of the CPS must be recovered. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that these funds are returned to the exchequer,” Bhardwaj said.
The high court in its verdict quashed the appointments of the six CPSs, declaring them illegal, unconstitutional and void. The court also struck down the Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances, Powers, Privileges and Amenities) Act, 2006, which had provided the framework for the appointments, saying it was beyond the legislative competence of the state assembly.
The CPSs whose appointments were quashed include MLAs from Rohru, Kullu, Arki, Baijnath, Doon and Palampur. Calling upon the CPSs to resign on moral grounds, Bhardwaj said, “These appointments were not only illegal but also morally wrong. The CPS should step down immediately.”
Bhardwaj criticized the state government’s reported plan to challenge the high court’s verdict in the Supreme Court, saying such a move would not be legally tenable. “The high court’s verdict is clear and any plea by the state government will not be entertained,” he said.
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