By Marcellus D’Souza

Apr 29: Chief Secretary of Goa Ajit Roy’s noting on the file which asked for a staff of 18 people for Pratap Singh Rane, who was accorded the status of ‘lifelong Cabinet” has been ignored by the state government.

This was revealed in a Right to Information (RTI) reply which stated that the CS had questioned the proposal to create 18 posts for the former chief minister Pratap Singh Rane as “he was not assigned any specific work or task”. But the noting was ignored by the General Administration Department (GAD).

The proposal was sent to the CS on April 6. The CS’s noting advised the GAD to examine the requirement of personal staff.

On April 27, the Goa Cabinet approved Pratapsingh Rane’s lifetime cabinet status. CM Pramod Sawant announced “Rane will get all the benefits of cabinet post” and decided to appoint 18 staff members to him as the position entails.
“Our government has decided to grant lifelong Cabinet status to the senior most legislator, Pratapsingh Rane, for his great service to Goa. He has held the topmost positions in the state as the Chief Minister and Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly and completed 50 years as MLA. He will always be an inspiration to the people of Goa across strata,” Sawant said.

“I look forward to his continued guidance as we work towards the welfare of the people and development of the State. I congratulate him and wish him all the very best in all his future endeavours,” he added.
The “lifelong cabinet status” will give Rane status and privilege equal to that of a minister through his life.
Vishwajit Rane, his son and number 2 in the 0.2 Pramod Sawant cabinet had said, “At 83, why does he have to continue in politics? One should gracefully retire after becoming a chief minister for more than six terms. A person who is my idol and someone I have so much respect for, that person should gracefully retire, not retire in the battlefield. It will be a very messy thing.”

This is a first-of-its-kind decision since Liberation, taken by the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government which has approved Congress Poriem MLA Pratapsingh Rane lifelong cabinet status for his service to the state.

On April 25, The Bombay High Court at Goa presided over by Justice M. S. Sonak and Justice R. N. Laddha admitted a plea filed by Advocate Aires Rodrigues challenging the validity of the notification of January 7, 2022 bestowing the status of “Lifetime Cabinet” minister on Pratapsingh Rane who has been chief Minister of Goa for a record six times and is a former Leader of Opposition in the Goa Legislative Assembly.

Advocate Aires Rodrigues had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the matter and had made the state of Goa and 83-year-old Pratapsingh Rane parties 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 hurriedly resolved on January 6, 2022 to confer Pratapsingh Rane, a 10-time legislator, is Goa’s longest serving MLA. He also holds a record for having served as chief minister of the state for six terms, a little less than 16 years, between 1980 and 2007 and 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.

Aires contended that cabinet status to Pratapsingh Rane will cost the exchequer Rs. 90 lakh per year.
The next hearing has been fixed for May 2 for arguments over interim relief.