Chandigarh, July 22
More than four years after the appointment of retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar as the Chief Principal Secretary (CPS) to Punjab’s then Chief Minister was set aside, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has reversed the judgment after holding that there was no violation of “any statutory rules”.
Allowing the appeal and setting aside the impugned judgment, the Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma asserted a new Chief Minister upon entering the office inevitably needed someone to assist him in performing his functions and duties.
Comprehensive planning and regular monitoring was required at the level of his office for fulfilling the commitments made in the manifesto. For this, decision was taken by the then Chief Minister to appoint Kumar, who had experience of working in various departments. He had earlier also worked in the CM’s office as the Principal Secretary.
“We do not see any undue haste in appointment in the above factual matrix. In any case, this has no bearing upon the appointment, when we have come to the conclusion that he was not holding a public office nor was he performing any public/sovereign functions. The appointment being purely contractual in nature and there being no violation of any statutory rules especially when, he has not been appointed against any cadre/ex-cadre/temporary post of IAS, we see no ground which would entitle issuance of a writ of quo-warranto by this Court holding the respondent to be a usurper of office,” the Bench added. — TNS
High Court upholds appointment of Suresh Kumar as CPS to then CM
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