The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday 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 six chief parliamentary secretaries, was not maintainable.
The government had said even though the petition was filed by 12 MLAs, only Satpal Singh Satti had 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.
Dismissing the application, a division bench of the court comprising Justices Vivek Thakur and Bipin Chander Negi said 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 the 11 other petitioners, ratifying and substantiating Satti’s claim that he was instructed and duly authorised by them to file the affidavit.
There is no requirement to amend the petition or any plea as no personal relief has been sought by the petitioners, rather an issue of public interest involving the constitutionality of an Act has been raised by filing the joint petition and therefore, the present application, being devoid of any merits, is dismissed, the order passed by the court said.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu appointed six MLAs — Sunder Singh Thakur, Mohan Lal Brakta, Ram Kumar, Sanjay Awasthi, Ashish Butail and Kishori Lal — as chief parliamentary secretaries on February 8.
