HC seeks state government’s reply on Prashant Kishor’s appointment
Patna,(BiharTimes): A division bench of Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Ravi Ranjan of Patna High Court on Thursday directed the state government to file its reply on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of Prashant Kishor as adviser to chief minister Nitish Kumar and giving him the rank of a minister.
Nagrik Adhikar Manch, an NGO, which filed the PIL, said Prashant was appointed surpassing the set norms.
The bench asked the state government to reply within a week. The matter will next be heard on October 27.
Prashant, who played a crucial role in Narendra Modi’s election campaigns in 2012 and 2014 later switched over to work for the Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in 2015 Assembly election. He was on January 21 last appointed adviser, policy and programme implementation, to the chief minister.
Petitioner’s counsel Dinu Kumar told the court that the post was created on January 19 and incorporated in the Bihar Gazette on January 22. However, Prashant was appointed a day before on January 21. He questioned the government’s intention in making Prashant the adviser.
The counsel also said that neither did the state government fix any qualification for the post nor did it issue any advertisement. Even the selection process was kept under wraps.
The petitioner’s counsel also argued that only a serving minister in the state cabinet is provided the status of a cabinet-rank minister.
It is upon this that Justice Ansari directed the state government to file a counter affidavit in the case asking under which Section the government derives the power to appoint an adviser to chief minister and provide him the rank of a cabinet minister.
