Bilaspur: On August 20, the cabinet was expanded in Chhattisgarh. After which the number of ministers in the cabinet increased from 11 to 14. Congress had strongly opposed this. Now this whole matter has reached the High Court. Where by filing a PIL, all 14 ministers including the General Administration Department, Chief Minister have been made parties.
Hearing in the double bench of the High Court: The matter was heard in the division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha on Friday. During this, the High Court has sought an affidavit from the petitioner Basdev Chakraborty. The court has asked him to present details of his social work and background to test the seriousness of the PIL. Along with this, the state government has also been asked to present its side in this matter. The next hearing of the case will be on September 2.
Know which ministers were sworn in?: On August 20, the cabinet of the Chhattisgarh government was expanded, in which Gajendra Yadav, Guru Khuswant Saheb and Rajesh Agarwal were included. The council of ministers now has a total of 14 members including Chief Minister Vishnudev Sai.
Congress’s argument regarding the number of ministers in the cabinet is that the number of ministers cannot exceed 15 percent of the total seats in the assembly. According to the 90 seats in the Chhattisgarh assembly, this number should be a maximum of 13.50 i.e. 13 ministers, but after the appointment of three new ministers on August 20, the cabinet now has 14 members, which is more than this limit. Congress says that this is a violation of Article 164 (1A) of the Constitution. Deepak Baij had talked about going to court on this issue.
The expansion of the Sai cabinet is not justified. This is a disregard of Article 164 (1A) of the Constitution. We strongly oppose this – Deepak Baij, PCC Chief
BJP refutes Congress’ allegations: BJP has called Congress’ allegations baseless, and is presenting the example of the formula implemented in Haryana regarding the number of ministers.
The cabinet expansion that has taken place is justified. Just like 14 ministers are working on 90 MLAs in Haryana, similarly cabinet expansion has been done in Chhattisgarh under this rule- Arun Sao, Deputy CM, Chhattisgarh
The next hearing on the dispute related to Sao cabinet expansion is on 2 September in Chhattisgarh High Court. Now it has to be seen what stand is presented by the government on this.
