Daijiworld Media Network

Lucknow, Jul 8: Acting on a petition filed by a retired IAS officer, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Thursday July 7 issued notices to several senior IAS officers to explain their appointments to chief minister Mayawati's secretariat, which the petition had termed illegal.

The petition, filed by S N Shukla, stated that the appointments of IAS officers Ravindra Singh, Navneet Sehgal, Netram, Durga Shankar Mishra, R P Singh, Dinesh Singh, R C Shrivastav, N S Ravi, Pradeep Shukla and Vijay Shankar Pandey were 'adjusted' against the IAS cadre and pay rules and breached Articles 256 and 257 of the Indian Constitution.

All the above officers were issued notices by the bench, which comprised Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Rituraj Awasthi.

Shukla in his petition also pointed out that there was no such post as an additional cabinet secretary, and therefore the appointment of Ravindra Singh is illegal.

The post of the judicial member of the board of revenue has been given to five officers, though there can be only one judicial member, Shukla said in his petition.

He also stated that since there was only one post of principal secratary and two secretaries in the chief minister's secretariat, the appointment of Navneet Sehgal and three others too has been 'adjusted'.