The High Court of Karnataka has dismissed a PIL petition questioning the legality of appointing political secretaries and advisers, with the facilities and status of a Cabinet-rank Minister, to the Chief Minister.
Appointments of K. Govindaraj and Nazeer Ahmed as political secretaries, Sunil Kunagol as chief adviser, and K.V. Prabhakar as media adviser to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were challenged in the petition.
It was contended in the petition, filed by Umapathi S., a Bengaluru-based advocate, that the appointment of political secretaries and advisers with Cabinet-rank status was a violation of Article 164(1A) of the Constitution, which restricts the number of Ministers to be appointed in the Council of Ministers in a State.
However, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit said that “merely because a Cabinet status is conferred on a particular appointee, that per se does not make him a Minister within the meaning of Article 164”.
These persons are appointed to assist the Chief Minister and they are not functioning as the Ministers in the literal sense, the Bench said while pointing out that examples of conferment of Cabinet status to persons other than the Ministers are available in several States since the enactment of the Constitution.
Such status is conferred for various reasons that fall within the exclusive domain of the Executive and therefore, the court cannot undertake their deeper examination in judicial review, the Bench observed.
