IMPHAL, February 26: The state government is yet to reply to a show cause notice of the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench regarding a Public Interest Litigation, PIL on the appointment of five state Members of the Legislative Assembly as Parliamentary Secretaries.
The PIL was filed on November 7, 2012 by Dr Khomdon Singh Lisam and was admitted the same day in the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench. After the first hearing of the PIL, the court had on the same day on January 7, 2013 issued the Show Cause Notice to the concerned authorities of the Manipur Government demanding the reasons for the appointment of the five parliamentary secretaries, sources said.
The Imphal Bench of the High Court had also directed that the reply of the Show Cause Notice should be submitted by February 7, but the state government which is the respondent had appealed for an extension for the submission of the reply by at least another three weeks which was accepted by the court and extended the deadline to February 25 which was yesterday.
However, the respondents have failed to submit its reply even after the extended deadline has passed.
It is also said that the respondents have also failed to provide a copy of the reply to the Show Cause Notice to the counsel of the petitioner.
It may be mentioned that the PIL had contested the appointment of the Parliamentary Secretaries as outside the Indian Constitution.
The five MLAs appointed as Parliamentary Secretaries are Keisham Meghachandra, Mairembam Prithiviraj, Victor Keishing, Vungzaliam Valte and Md Amin Shah.