The Meghalaya High Court has declared invalid a law passed by the state on the appointment of parliamentary secretaries, IANS reported.
Political parties in power usually appoint as parliamentary secretaries those MLAs who are not given a position in the government.
Though the court left it to Governor Ganga Prasad to decide on the disqualification of the current post-holders, all the the 17 parliamentary secretaries handed over their resignations to Chief Minister Mukul Sangma (pictured above), The Shillong Times reported.
The division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Ved Prakash Vaish passed the judgment in a Public Interest Litigation plea, which argued that the government invest money in development projects instead of spending funds on parliamentary secretaries.
The High Court, in its ruling, cited a Supreme Court judgment from July that declared as unconstitutional a law enacted by the Assam government in 2004 to allow the appointment of parliamentary secretaries in the rank of Minister of State.
Last year, the Delhi High Court set aside an order by the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government to give 21 MLAs additional roles as parliamentary secretaries.
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