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Patna, (Bihar Times): In a major setback to the state government a division bench of the Patna High Court on Thursday held State Election Commissioner (SEC) J K Dutta’s appointment as “illegal” and restrained him from performing the duties. Dutta became the SEC on June 5, 2006. The court has also stopped the payment of salary and perks to him.
The bench comprising acting Chief Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad and Justice Ravi Ranjan Prasad pronounced the judgement on a PIL seeking his removal on the grounds that his appointment was not made as per the procedure.
The Public Interest Litigation was filed by Sunil Kumar Tiwari, Secretary of an NGO Servers of Society. The high court had reserved the order on December 22 last.
According to Tiwari’s counsel Ashutosh Ranjan Pandey, the petitioner, using RTI, came to know that Dutta was appointed by chief minister Nitish Kumar and not by the then Governor R S Gavai.
This was in gross violation of the Article 243 K of the Constitution and Section 123 of the Bihar Panchayati Raj Act which state that the SEC has to be appointed by the Governor and not by the government.
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