Suresh Kumar’s appointment: High Court defers hearing to July 11

CHANDIGARH:THE Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday deferred the hearing on the Punjab government’s appeal against the single bench order that had set aside the appointment of retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar as chief principal secretary to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

The high court is likely to conduct day-to-day hearing that will resume on July 11.

The HC division bench had stayed the single-judge order on February 14. In January, the single-judge bench had held that Kumar was holding the public office without authority and overriding powers were given to him without any accountability. Following the single-judge order, Kumar had resigned but rejoined after the order was stayed by the division bench.

On Wednesday, senior Congress leader and Punjab government counsel in the case, P Chidambaram, sought to raise arguments on the state’s behalf. However, the hearing had to be deferred as one of the judges hearing the matter had to be part of a full bench on some other issue in a while. The court decided to defer the matter.

A 1983-batch IAS officer, Kumar was appointed immediately after the Congress government took charge in Punjab in March last year. The post created for the first time in Punjab was stated to be equivalent to a cabinet secretary of the central government. Kumar was being paid ₹2.5 lakh per month.

His appointment was challenged by Ramandeep Singh, claiming that Kumar had become a ‘de facto CM’ and was empowered by the government to take decisions on behalf of the chief minister.