‘Rounding off allows govt to appoint 18 ministers’

CHANDIGARH: The state government on Monday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that rounding off allows it to appoint 18 ministers. The government has told the court that the strength of Punjab assembly is 117, 15% of which is 17.55. “Rounding off allowed the state to have 18 ministers,” the government told the court.

The response came on a petition that challenged the appointment of nine Punjab MLAS as ministers on April 21 in the first cabinet expansion by the Captain Amarinder Singh government after coming to power in March 2017. The petitioner lawyer had alleged that the government has violated the 15% ceiling on ministers’ appointment fixed as per the 91st constitutional amendment.

The petitioner said maximum number of ministers the state can appoint is 17 and not 18.

The government told the court that the governor had given a nod for appointments. The nine ministers have been appointed as per the Constitution and they are entitled to the salaries and allowances as per the East Punjab Ministers Salaries Act, 1947, the court was told on a plea that government be restrained from paying salaries. The limit imposed by Article 164 is designed to curb abnormally large council of ministers and a mere “fractional deviation” as is in the present case of a majority government would not constitute violation, the court was told.