Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, J.

1. Eleven members of the Chhattisgarh State Legislative Assembly are Parliamentary Secretaries by virtue of notifications issued by the Governor of the said State, followed by administration of oath of secrecy as regards such office to each of them and upon each of them being allocated to assist the different Ministers who are also specified in that regard.

2. Writ Petition (PIL) No. 119 of 2016 is filed seeking that the appointment of the aforesaid persons as Parliamentary Secretary be invalidated by holding that such appointments are void ab initio, fundamentally for the reason that such appointments result in infraction of Article 164(1A) of the Constitution of India and such appointments are the result of colourable exercise of power to circumvent the restrictive covenant contained in that provision of the Constitution. It is also the plea that creating a political post of Parliamentary Secretary is beyond the legislative competence of the State and therefore, neither the State nor the Governor, in exercise of executive power, could have made such appointments. During pendency of that writ petition, Writ Petition (C) No. 3 of 2017 was fil