Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: A Division bench of the Bombay High Court at Goa comprising of Justice M.S Sonak and Justice R.N. Laddha today admitted the petition filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues challenging the constitutional validity of the notification issued on January 7th this year bestowing Lifetime Cabinet status on former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Raoji Rane.
The Court will, on May 2nd, hear the plea for interim relief made by Adv. Rodrigues seeking a stay of that notification.
The petitioner has drawn the High Court’s attention to how the Goa cabinet hurriedly resolved on January 6th this year to confer Pratapsingh Rane with lifetime Cabinet status.
He pointed out that the Constitution of India does not provide for conferring Cabinet status on any individual other than a current minister who is duly sworn in and that there is no law whereby Cabinet status can be granted to an individual who was in the past a Minister.
Pointing out that under Article 164 of the Constitution, the total strength of the Goa cabinet cannot exceed 12, Adv. Rodrigues, in his petition, has submitted that conferment of Cabinet status on Pratapsingh Rane results in the number of Cabinet ranks being 13, which exceeds the mandate of law.
The petitioner told the reporters that Rane is now eligible for 12 staff members at the cost of the exchequer with the Cabinet rank.
The Government has already begun the process of taking 12 employees for this redundant post, he said.
Stating that the very purpose of the 91st Amendment to the Constitution, which restricts the size of Cabinet, was to prevent the installation of jumbo cabinets and a resultant huge drain on the public exchequer, Adv. Rodrigues has stated that conferring the Cabinet status to Pratapsingh Rane defeats the very purpose of the law and was a back door entry in willful disobedience of the mandate of law.
Drawing the Court’s attention that there was no legal power vested in the Government for conferment of such status of Cabinet Minister and that it cannot be made in the garb of exercise of executive powers, Adv. Rodrigues, in his petition, has stated that the notification according to Cabinet Status to Pratapsingh Rane was illegal, without jurisdiction, and void.
Expressing concern that Political patronage seems to be the order of the day, Adv. Rodrigues has further stated that the conferment of Cabinet status on Pratapsingh Rane was malafide, a colourable exercise of power in tearing hurry for political patronage and thus bad in law.
Adv. Rodrigues in his petition has also given the High Court complete details of BJP’s Goa in charge Devendra Fadnavis’s visit to meet Pratapsingh Rane at his residence on September 21st last year and to the December 22nd 2021 selection of Pratapsingh Rane as the Congress candidate from Poriem which he on January 27th this year declined to contest just days before the deadline to file the nominations for the Assembly elections which were held on February 14th this year.