1. Heard the petitioner appearing in person.
2. The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has 225 members. As of today, according to the case of the petitioner, there are 28 Honble Ministers appointed in accordance with Clause (1) of Article 164 of the Constitution of India. The challenge in this petition by the petitioner appearing in person is to the appointment of Chairpersons of various Boards and Corporations on the ground that all of them have been given benefits which are available to the post of Honble Ministers, and therefore, for all purposes and intents, the Chairpersons of various Boards and Corporations will have to be treated as Honble Ministers. He submits that if the number of such Chairpersons of the said Boards and Corporations is taken into consideration, the total number of Honble Ministers will exceed 15% which will amount to violation of Clause (1A) of Article 164 of the Constitution of India. Our attention is invited to the fact that the Chairpersons are enjoying all the benefits such as salaries, perquisites, allowances, etc., admissible to the Honble Ministers.
3. The petitioner appearing in person relied upon the judgment and order of this Court dated 4th January 2020 passed in W.P.No.2073 of 2019 and connected matters, by which the provisions of the Karnataka Parliamentary Secretaries Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1963, have been struck down. He submits that the position of the chairpersons of the Boards and Corporations is no different from the position of the parliamentary salaries.
4. We have given our careful consideration to the submissions.
5. From paragraph 24 of the judgment of this Court dated 4th January 2020 which is quoted by the petitioner, it appears that a specific finding was recorded by this Court that there was hardly any difference between the role of a Deputy Minister and a Parliamentary Secretary and for all intents and purposes, the office of the Parliamentary Secretary has trappings of the post of Honble Ministers of the State without independent charge or at least Honble Deputy Ministers.
6. As far as the Chairpersons of Boards and Corporations are concerned, there is no material placed on record to show that the said posts have trappings of the post of Honble Ministers. Merely because salary and other perquisites which are admissible to the post of Honble Ministers are provided to the Chairpersons, they cannot become Honble Ministers. The nature of the powers which they exercise and their duties are totally different. Therefore, while testing the compliance of Clause (1A) of Article
164 of the Constitution, only those Honble Ministers will have to be taken into consideration who have been appointed under Article 164 of the Constitution. Admittedly, 28 Honble Ministers have been appointed. Thus, the percentage does not exceed 15%.
7. The challenge to the appointment of Chairpersons of various Boards and Corporations is only on the basis of violation of Clause (1A) of Article 164 of the Constitution. Therefore, the challenge in the petition cannot be entertained. However, we make it clear that we have not gone into the question of legality of the decision of the State Government of providing salaries, perquisites and allowances admissible to the post of Honble Ministers to Chairpersons of various Boards and Corporations. Subject to what is observed above, there is no case to entertain this writ petition and the same is accordingly disposed Sd/- CHIEF JUSTICE Sd/- JUDGE