The Manipur High Court has fixed April 5 as the day for final hearing of the petition and Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed before the court seeking cancellation of disputed Manipur Parliamentary Secretary (appointment, salary and allowances and miscellaneous provision) Act 2012, which empowered the state to appoint parliamentary secretaries.
The petition filed by legislator, O Surjakumar and other three MLAs was heard on Tuesday before the division bench of the High Court comprising of acting Chief Justice, N Kotiswar and Justice K Nobin.
During the hearing, the petitioner counsel confining himself only to one issue submitted his query whether parliamentary secretary of Manipur will be valid in the light of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court reported in the All India Reports 2017 SC 3552.
Further the petitioner counsel submitted that the present petition can be disposed of on considering the question of law only and it may not be necessary on the part of the respondents to seek time to file affidavits in opposition.
The defence counsel, however, prayed to give some days for studying the recent judgment of the Supreme Court report.
The division bench considering the fact that only question of law will be raised by the petitioner in the case and has fixed April 5 for the final hearing of the case.
The new government exercising the Manipur parliamentary secretary (appointment, salary and allowances and miscellaneous provision) Act 2012 had earlier appointed 12 parliamentary secretaries.