Marcellus D’Souza

Apr 14: Advocate Aires Rodrigues has moved the Bombay High Court at Goa thru a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the validity of the notification of January 7, 2022 bestowing the status of “Lifetime Cabinet” minister on Pratapsingh Rane.

Justice M. S. Sonak and Justice R. N. Laddha today agreed to hear the petition on Monday, April 25. The state of Goa and 83-year-old Pratapsingh Rane who has served as Chief Minister of Goa for a record six times and is a former Leader Of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly have been made party to respondents to the case.

Advocate Aires Rodrigues in his petition has drawn the attention of the High Court the manner in which the Goa Cabinet had hurridedly resolved on Jaunay 6, 2022 to confer Pratapsingh Rane, who has served .as a Member of Goa Legislative Assembly for over 50 years, the honour.

“The Constitution does not provide for conferring Cabinet status on any individual other than the current minister who is duly sworn in”, said Advocate Aires Rodrigues who pointed out that no law permits that the status of cabinet minister be granted to an individual who has been a minister in the past.

Article 164 of the Constitution permits that the strength of Goa cabinet cannot exceed 12 ministers, Rodrigues in his petition has submitted that conferring Cabinet status on Pratapsingh Rane means the strength of the cabinet stands at 13, exceeding the number mandated by law.

Advocate Aires Rodrigues stated that “The 91st Amendment to the Constitution, which restricts the size of the cabinet was to prevent the installation of jumbo cabinets and the resultant drain on the exchequer. Conferring, the status of cabinet minister on Pratapsingh Rane defeats this purpose and was a backdoor entry in willful disobedience of the mandate of Law”.

There are no legal power vested in the government for conferment of such status of Cabinet minister that that it cannot be made in the garb of exercise of executive powers, the learned advocate stated that “the notification granting the status of cabinet minister was bad in law, illegal, without jurisdiction and void”.

The PIL has given the High Court details of the Devendra Fadnavis’s, the BJPs Goa in Charge visit to Pratapsingh Rane at his residence on September 21, 2021 and how on January 27 2022 Rane declined to contest the Assembly elections, although the Poriem seat was allocated to him by the Congress party, in favour of his daughter-in law Deviya Vishwajit Rane who contested the seat on a BJP ticket and won the same in elections held on February 14, 2022. Pratapsingh Rane represented Poriem for nearly five decades as a Congress MLA.