TDP’s Telangana Working President A. Revanth Reddy has challenged Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao appointing several persons as Advisers to the Government, conferring them `cabinet rank’, by filing a PIL in the Hyderabad High Court. The PIL is expected to come up for hearing tomorrow.

The MLA submitted that the government’s decision to confer cabinet rank status with perks will not only have financial burden on the state exchequer, but will result in belittling the very expression since it originally applies only to the ministers of the state who are supposed to advice the executive head of the state i.e. the Governor.

He said that the state government has not formulated any guidelines in conformity with the law regarding conferment of cabinet rank status on different persons. He further referred to the Article 164 (1A) of the Constitution, which has imposed a ceiling of 15 per cent of the ministers who enjoy the status of cabinet rank, on the total strength of the members of legislative assembly (total 119 and one nominated MLA).

Reddy argued that the persons who were appointed in various capacities are ‘indirectly’ being treated as part of the cabinet and if they are taken into account the 15 percent ceiling imposed is violated. Any appointment made under the ‘cabinet status’ is nothing but illegal and contrary to Article 164 (1A) of the Constitution, he noted and urged the court to set aside the decision of conferment of ‘cabinet status’ to the unofficial respondents, he added.

Revanth Reddy, in his petition, also referred to a PIL filed in the year 2015 by Gutta Sukhendar Reddy, the then Nalgonda Congress MP, with an identical issue and that the same was pending before the court. As the petitioner Sukhendar Reddy later joined the ruling TRS, he is not at all pursuing the matter.