The Mayawati Government is questioning the Government of India’s contention over the creation of the post of Cabinet Secretary.The Centre had maintained that the “newly-created post of Cabinet Secretary is contrary to the Constitutional scheme and the statutory provisions” and “will disturb the fundamentals of governance of the country”.But Chief Standing Counsel of UP Government, DK Upadhyay, said the “creation of the Cabinet Secretary post lies well within the executive powers of the state vested in it under Article 162 of the Constitution.” The post of Secretary to Cabinet has existed in one form or the other since 1951 in the Rules of Business and Secretariat Instructions 1985, he said. “The CM has only exercised her discretion. Besides, since it is a post of confidence, the CM is entitled to make an appointment on such a post.”Upadhyay is representing the state government in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court in a PIL filed by Shiv Pratap Shukla — a practising lawyer of the Lucknow Bench. In the PIL, the petitioner had challenged the appointment of Shashank Shekhar Singh as cabinet secretary, saying it was an IAS cadre post and Singh was not from the cadre. Shukla has sought clarifications by the Central and the State Government in this appointment and had appealed quashing of the same, since it violated cadre rules and Article 312 of the Constitution. The Government of India Department of Personnel and Training — in its affidavit filed before the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on March 3 — had argued if the “creation of the non-cadre post of Cabinet Secretary in the state is legally valid and within the Constitutional framework of the system of governance of the state.”The contention of the Government of India is that “the post of Cabinet Secretary has overshadowed and undermined the post of Chief Secretary”. The affidavit also points out: “While the Chief Secretary is governed by the All India Service Rules, the accountability for the decisions of the Cabinet Secretary, who will be taking numerous decisions that will have financial implications, has not been fixed.”Reacting to this argument, a senior official in the state government said: “It is the discretion of the state Government to create a post and using that power, the CM has created a post and she has not picked up a person from the streets for that post.” He said Shashank Shekhar Singh boasts of 17 years’ work experience as a bureaucrat. Four Chief Secretaries of the state have worked directly under him. The Centre has also said such an action “may act as a precedent for other states and may be replicated by them, rendering the All India services redundant, this will adversely affect the unitary backbone of the administration and governance of a federal country.”
