from Rubiya Shaikh – Panaji Goa
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji (SP)       
 
Panaji, Oct 13: Social activist Aires Rodrigues has prayed that the judgment in the public interest petition challenging the appointment of parliamentary secretaries and granting of cabinet status to them be passed expeditiously or that the petition be heard and disposed of expeditiously by another bench of the High Court.
 
It may be recalled that on March 19 this year, the High Court reserved its judgment on the PIL filed by Rodrigues, challenging the appointments of Nilkanth Harlankar and Francisco Silveira as parliamentary secretaries and conferring of cabinet status to EDC chairman Agnelo Fernandes, deputy chairman of Goa Planning Board, Wilfred D'Souza and commissioner of NRI affairs Eduardo Faleiro.
 
In a petition to the Chief Justice of the Mumbai High Court, Aires Rodrigues has pointed out that the judgment in the case has not yet been pronounced, even after a gap of over six months. He has drawn the Chief Justice's attention to a judgment of the Supreme Court in Anil Rai v/s state of Bihar where it was observed, " if the judgment for any reason, is not pronounced within a period of six months, any of the parties of the said litigation shall be entitled to move an application before the Chief Justice of the High Court with a prayer to withdraw the said case and to make it over to any other bench for fresh arguments. It is open to the Chief Justice to grant the said prayer or to pass any order as he deems fit in the circumstances."
 
Rodrigues has stated that there is urgency in the matter, as the appointments challenged are a huge unnecessary burden to the state exchequer, as they were done for political expediency. He has further stated that the appointment of parliamentary secretaries and conferring of rank of a cabinet minister to others was a fraud on the Constitution of India and in violation of the 91st Amendment, which was meant to restrict the size of the cabinet and to prevent jumbo-size cabinets that cause huge financial burden to the state exchequer.
 
The petition was initially heard by a bench of the High Court, comprising of Justice R M S Khandeparkar and Justice R S Mohite on August 22, 2007 and the matter was reserved for judgment.
 
However, on August 24, the Court did not pass any judgment but adjourned the matter, stating that it would not be appropriate to deal with the matter as a similar case relating to the validity of the appointment of parliamentary secretaries and conferment of the status of cabinet ministers in the state of Assam was pending before the Supreme Court.
 
On September 11, 2007, the High Court bench comprising of Justice R S Mohite and Justice N A Britto granted Rodrigues liberty to move a transfer petition before the Supreme Court, so that his PIL could be heard along with the Assam petition. 
 
Rodrigues then moved the Supreme Court through a petition under Article 139-A (1) of the Constitution of India, seeking transfer of the PIL for hearing along with the Assam case.
 
On October 12, a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice S H Kapadia and Justice B Sudershan Reddy directed that it was the Mumbai High Court bench at Goa that should hear and decide the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by  Rodrigues. 
 
The PIL was finally heard on March 19, 2008 by Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice N A Britto and the judgment was reserved.  The advocate general of Goa was also directed to produce the original government files pertaining to the appointments of parliamentary secretaries and conferring of cabinet status to them.