CHANDIGARH: A petition was filed “in larger public interests” in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a day after President Ram Nath Kovind approved the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs from the Delhi Assembly. Advocate Jagmohan Singh Bhatti, in his petition, stated that the question involving great public importance was whether the four Chief Parliamentary Secretaries of the Haryana government invited disqualification too.
He said the President’s order applicable to the AAP MLAs was “supreme” and that it deserved to be made applicable to the case of the Haryana MLAs by ordering their disqualification in the totality of facts and circumstances. He said the Haryana government headed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had appointed Seema Trikha, Shyam Singh Rana, Dr Kamal Gupta and Bakshish Singh Virk as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. The High Court had cancelled their appointments in July last year.
In his petition, Bhatti argued that there was no provision for the post of CPS under the Constitution and that their appointment by the state was a burden on the exchequer. Bhatti also alleged that the CPSes' were enjoying financial benefits, including salary, travelling expenses, staff, medical and telephone bills along with government accommodation. Bhatti sought directions to quash the appointments claiming it was a waste of taxpayers' money, besides being unconstitutional.
State convenor of AAP, Naveen Jaihind also demanded their disqualification. Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala demanded recovery of pecuniary benefits availed by them while in office.
