IMPHAL, April 21: A petition was filed with the Manipur High Court to stay the order for the appointment of five MLAs as parliamentary secretaries with an interim order being passed while the final judgement is being awaited following the filing of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with the court against the appointment of five congress MLAs in the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly as Parliamentary Secretaries.
The Government of Manipur had earlier appointed Keisam 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) as Parliamentary Secretaries by issuing official orders on October 6, 2012. The Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh administered the oaths of office and secrecy to the MLAs and appointed them as Parliamentary Secretaries after which they took charge of the departments concerned.
However Dr. Khomdon Singh Lisam filed a PIL petition with the Gauhati High Court Imphal Bench on November 7, 2012 against the appointment of five congress MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries by the Government of Manipur.
The first hearing of PIL being admitted by the court was held on January 17, 2013. The petition is PIL No. 10 of 2012. The judgement passed by the division Bench of Justice T. Nandakumar Singh and Justice SR Sen of the then court after the hearing of PIL was conducted said, “Heard Mr. Th. Manihar , learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and also Mr. RS Reisang, learned Sr. Govt. Advocate appearing for the five respondents .
A notice calling upon the respondents “to show cause as to why a rule as prayed for should not be issued or why such further or other orders should not be passed as to this Court may seem fit and proper”.
As per the ruling by Division Bench following the 1st hearing of the PIL case, respondents were given three weeks time to submit their response to the show cause notice. As per the dateline set by the court, the response was not submitted in February. As the response to show cause notice was not submitted within the stipulated time, it was rescheduled on February 25, 2013 as per a further appeal of the court.
The response was however not submitted again at the rescheduled time. When the case was discussed on March 25, 2013 on which the High Court commenced its work, the Advocate General on behalf of the respondents appealed to the court to give another time for the show cause notice.
As per the directive by the court on January 17, 2013, the respondents sought another dateline instead of filing affidavits following which, Dr. Khomdon Singh, PIL Petitioner again appealed to stay the appointment orders of five Parliamentary Secretaries by issuing an interim order while the final judgement of his PIL is being awaited.