High court admits suit against appointment of cabinet secretary

LUCKNOW - Admitting a long pending writ petition against the creation of the post of cabinet secretary, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court Thursday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government.

A division bench headed by senior judge Justice Pradeep Kant has given four weeks time to the respondents to file their reply, and thereafter two weeks to the petitioners to file their reply.

The case has been posted for hearing in February.

The petition was moved jointly by Lok Prahari, an NGO headed by retired IAS officer S.N. Shukla and local lawyer Shiv Prakash Shukla. It sought to oppose the creation of the post of cabinet secretary as also the appointment of a non-IAS officer to that position.

The post has been held by Shashank Shekhar Singh, a former pilot with the Indian Army, who was initially appointed as director of state civil aviation in 1980, following which he opted to get absorbed in the state government where he occupied several key positions over the past three decades.