Hyderabad, May 1 (IANS): In a setback to the Telangana government, Hyderabad High Court on Friday stayed its order appointing six parliamentary secretaries.

A division bench, in its interim order, stayed Government Order 173, appointing six legislators of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as the parliamentary secretaries.

The bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar passed the orders on petitions filed by Congress MP Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Telugu Desam Party's legislator A. Revanth Reddy, challenging the appointments.

J. Ravishankar, a counsel for the petitioners, said they argued that the appointments were made in violation of the constitution.

The petitioners argued that the posts were created by the government to provide benefits like rank of minister of state, bungalows, cars and other perks to the ruling party leaders through the public exchequer.

Challenging the constitutional validity of the Telangana Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, salaries, allowances and miscellaneous provisions) Act, 2015, they contended that this was in violation of Article 164 (1A) of the Constitution, which provides a ceiling on the number of ministries in proportion to the total number of members in the state legislature.

The government clarified that the objective of the act was to help cabinet ministers in the state assembly when it is in session.

The court further directed the government not to make any new appointment without its permission.