Navjot Singh Sidhu had been maintaining that the salary drawn by him as minister was not enough to meet expenses of his supporters, who descended on his house in Amritsar every month. (Express photo/File)
Months after Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed as infructuous a PIL against Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s participation in a TV show, the minister was back on the small screen laughing away on the sets of another comedy TV show.
On October 10, while setting aside a PIL by a Chandigarh-based activist HC Arora, the High Court made it clear that it was not deciding the writ petition on merit. It had stated that the Kapil Sharma Show, in which Sidhu appeared, was off air by a month then. Arora had filed a PIL in HC raising the matter of propriety against the Punjab Cabinet minister stating it was a conflict of interest. Arora had referred to a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court that had observed that a Chief Minister should not act in a film.
Earlier, CM Amarinder Singh too had sought a legal opinion by Advocate General of Punjab to report if it was a case of conflict of interest. AG Atul Nanda had said that there was no restriction on Sidhu working for TV.
Sidhu had been maintaining that the salary drawn by him as minister was not enough to meet expenses of his supporters, who descended on his house in Amritsar every month. Hence, he argued, he needed a source of income to discharge his duties. ens