The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition questioning appointment of Congress leaders and workers to the posts of president, vice-president, and member of State-, district-, and taluk- level committees set to up to oversee implementation of the government’s five guarantee schemes, which was a promise made in the party’s election manifesto.
Status and facilities
Also, the petition has questioned the extension of Cabinet Minister’s status and facilities to the president of the State committee, status of a Minister of State along with all facilities to the vice-presidents, and sitting fees for the members of the committees.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice M.I. Arun passed the order on the petition filed by P. Rajeev, a former MLA for Kudachi constituency and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam contended that the creation of the posts for the benefit of leaders of the political party in power amounts to colourable exercise as the Government Order (GO) creating the posts and making appointments is silent on the law under which such appointments were made.
Mr. Shyam also argued that extension of the status of the Cabinet Minister and the Minister of State to the president and vice-presidents, respectively, of the State-level guarantees implementation committee is a “backdoor” opportunity given to the ruling party’s members who could not be accommodated in posts like Minister due to restriction imposed in the Article 164(1A) of the Constitution of India, which limits number of members in the Council of Ministers in the States.
Congress leaders H.M. Revanna is the chairperson of the State-level committee, S.R. Patil Byadgi, Pushpa Amarnath, Meharaj Khan, and Suraj Hegde are the vice-presidents of the committee.
‘Unnecessary burden’
The government’s decision to extend the facilities of the Cabinet Minister and the Minister of State, pay honorarium ranging from ₹25,000 to ₹40,000 to the presidents of district- and taluk-level committees and to pay sitting fee for the members of these committees is an unnecessary burden on the State exchequer, it has been contended in the petition.
