Meghalaya High Court strikes down State Parliamentary Secretaries Act

SHILLONG, Nov 09, 2017: In a landmark judgment, the Meghalaya High Court on Thursday struck down the Meghalaya Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2005.

Delivering its judgment on the case on Thursday, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Ved Prakash Vaish held this act 'invalid' for want of legislative competence of the State Legislature and is, therefore, struck down.

In its order, the Court maintained that as a necessary corollary, the notifications appointing the Parliamentary Secretaries and other follow-up actions are declared void, for having been issued and carried out under an invalid enactment.

"To sum up, in our view, challenge to the validity of the Meghalaya Act of 2005 has to succeed in view of the law declared by the Supreme Court in Bimolangshu Roy‟s case; and, therefore, the Meghalaya Act of 2005 is required to be declared invalid," the order stated.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional a law enacted by Assam in 2004 that allowed appointment of parliamentary secretaries with the rank of minister of state.

"This declaration of law by the Supreme Court, on want of legislative competence of the State Legislature, is binding on all the Courts and obviously, if the said law is applicable to the present case, it shall have to be applied, irrespective of the pleadings of the parties," the HC maintained.

The HC further maintained that in view of this clear pronouncement of the Supreme Court, the law is that there is no legislative competence of the State Legislature to create the new office of Parliamentary Secretary.

Meanwhile, the question regarding disqualification of 17 parliamentary secretaries as members of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly is left open for determination of the Governor, if raised in accordance with law.

"It is hardly a matter of any doubt that when a question arises as to whether a member of a House of the Legislature of the State has become subject to any of disqualifications mentioned in Article 191(1), the question has to be referred for the decision of the Governor; and the decision of the Governor in this regard, on the basis of the opinion of Election Commission, is final," the order stated.

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