The Himachal Pradesh High Court has recently dismissed an application of the state government claiming that a petition filed by 12 BJP MLAs, challenging the appointment of the deputy chief minister and 6 chief parliamentary secretaries, was not maintainable.
The government stated that even though the petition was filed by 12 MLAs, only Satpal Singh Satti filed an affidavit, while the 11 others had not filed any affidavit and as such, the petition suffers from a defect and is not maintainable.
While dismissing the application, a division bench of the court comprising Justices Vivek Thakur and Bipin Chander Negi stated that it is of the considered opinion that there is no defect in the case, as alleged.
It is a curable defect, which stands cured by filing supplementary affidavits by 11 other petitioners, ratifying and substantiating Satti’s claim that he was instructed and duly authorized by them to file the affidavit.
The order passed by the court stated that there is no requirement to amend the petition/plea as no personal relief has been sought by the petitioners, rather an issue of public interest involving the constitutionality of an Act that has been raised by filing joint petition and therefore, the present application, being devoid of any merits, is dismissed.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu appointed 6 MLAs Sunder Singh Thakur, Mohan Lal Brakta, Ram Kumar, Sanjay Awasthi, Ashish Butail and Kishori Lal as chief parliamentary secretaries on February 8.
