Chhattisgarh parliamentary secretaries’ appointment upheld

Bilaspur/Raipur, April 13 (IANS) Giving relief to the 11 parliamentary secretaries in the Chhattisgarh government, the Bilaspur High Court on Friday dismissed petitions challenging their appointment, though it said they would not be able to work as ministers.

The verdict came on the petitions filed by Congress leader Mohammed Akbar and Right to Information (RTI) activist Rakesh Choubey.

The decision, pronounced by a bench of Chief Justice T.B. Radhakrishnan and Justice Sharad Gupta, also came as a relief to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Reacting to the court verdict, Singh said it was a welcome judgement and that justice had been served.

"The decision is as per our expectations. I have said in the past also that the appointments are not wrong," he said.

Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, however, said that the high court had not done justice with this order.

"The state government has kept 11 additional ministers illegally. If the appointment had been cancelled, the government could have fallen," Baghel said.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)