The Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition questioning the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Parliamentary Secretaries Allowances Act, 1963, and government notification of January 7, 2019, appointing eight legislators as parliamentary secretaries.

A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice L. Narayana Swamy and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order on the petition filed by M.B. Adinarayana, a city-based social activist.

The court also ordered issue of notices to the newly appointed parliamentary secretaries — K. Abdul Jabbar, Anjali Hemanth Nimbalkar, Ivan D’souza, Koujalgi Mahantesh Shivananda, Roopakala M. Shashidhar, K. Govindaraju, K. Raghavendra Basavaraj Hitnal, and D.S. Hoolageri.

The petition said the law enabling appointment of parliamentary secretaries, with salary and allowances equal to the Ministers, is contrary to the Article 164(1-A) of the Constitution of India, which restricts the number of Ministers in a State depending upon the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of the State.

Pointing out that Article 164(1-A) states that ‘the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in a State shall not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that State,” the petitioner claimed that appointing parliamentary secretaries with equivalent salary and allowance is contrary to the object of this Article.

Contending that the the Constitution does not empower the State legislature to create posts of parliamentary secretaries, the petitioner pointed out that the Supreme Court had quashed similar laws enacted by Assam, West Bengal and Meghalaya governments that created posts of parliamentary secretaries.