SHILLONG: A delegation of Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) members led by its president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit met Governor V. Shanmuganthan on Thursday and sought his intervention to repeal the parliamentary secretaries act.
Addressing reporters after meeting the Governor, Basaiawmoit called for striking down the Meghalaya Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2005 and stated that the act has become invalid.
“As per Article 213 of the Constitution of India which provides that the Governor shall not, without instruction from the President, promulgate an ordinance if an Act of the Legislature of the State containing the same provisions would under this Constitution have been invalid, unless having been reserved for the consideration of the President, it had received the assent of the President,” Basaiawmoit stated.
“Under the recent ordinance only the particular clause 5 has been removed from the Parliamentary Secretaries act,” he claimed.
He also referred to the two rulings of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh and the Kolkata High Court that had struck down the acts relating to parliamentary secretaries and said, “The same should be done here in Meghalaya.”
As to the State government’s move to introduce the ordinance he said, “It was introduced to protect the parliamentary secretaries.”
It may be reminded that only one parliamentary secretary has resigned from his post.
Reacting to this, Basaiawmoit said, “The government should facilitate others to do the same but the ordinance only serves to protect them.”
On the part of the Governor he said that he would examine the issue.
