Hearing on PIL on appointment Parliamentary Secretaries postponed

The hearing was initiated following a complaint filed by Dr Khomdon Singh Lisam with the Manipur High Court to stay the order for appointment of five Congress MLAs by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh as parliamentary secretaries.

The case no is filed as MISC case (PIL) No 3 of 2013. The petitioner had filed a PIL petition (interim prayer) PIL No. 10 of 2012 on April 18, 2013 against the appointment of the five MLAs. Th Manihar Singh, Advocate is representing the petitioner. After the Manipur High Court had accepted the petition, its proceedings had been in process; however, owing to the slow proceeding of the case, the petitioner filed another MISC case (PIL) appealing for a stay order on the appointment of the five MLAs even as the proceeding of the previous case is continuing.The MLAs who were appointed by the state government as Parliamentary Secretaries are Keisham Meghachandra Singh (Minor Irrigation, Information and Public Relations), Mairembam Prithviraj Singh (Youth Affairs and Sports, Tourism), Victor Keishing (Tribal Affairs and Hills, Information Technology), Vungzagin Valte (Horticulture and Soil Conservation, Command Area Development Agency) and Md Amin Shah (Minorities, Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes, Science and Technology). Chief Secretary, DS Poonia, had issued the official notification of the appointment on October 6, 2012 and the state Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy. 

Though the main case (PIL petition) which has been filed with Manipur High Court as a challenge to the move of the Manipur government remains pending, the hearing on the MISC case filed to stay temporarily the order for appointment of five MLAs as parliamentary secretaries was held at this court today.However, out of the ten respondents of the case, the counsel on behalf of five MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries from his side made an appeal to give some more time to submit the reply as per the notice issued by the court following which there was an exchange with the counsel on behalf of the petitioner saying that taking a long time is akin to saying that the case will be put in the cold storage. 

However, the court approved the postponement of the further proceedings of the case to the next week.It may be mentioned that the interim prayer was made as per an order made by this court on January 17, 2013, with regard to PIL case No. 10 of 2010.

The respondents of the case are the state of Manipur represented by the Chief Secretary , government of Manipur, the Principal Secretary (Finance), government of Manipur, the Secretary to the Chief Minister, CM Secretariate, Imphal, Deputy Secretary (law), Government of Manipur and the five MLAs. 

The fate of the five MLAs continuing as Parliamentary Secretaries will be now be known in connection with the case next week.