Bimolangshu Roy (Dead) Through LRs v. State of Assam
Background
After the Constitution's 91st Amendment capped the size of a State's Council of Ministers at 15% of the Legislative Assembly's strength, the Assam legislature passed a separate law creating the post of "Parliamentary Secretary": an office carrying the rank, status and perks of a Minister of State, but technically outside the Council of Ministers. Eight Parliamentary Secretaries were appointed and took oath under this law. A public interest litigant challenged the Act in the Gauhati High Court as an unconstitutional attempt to sidestep the ministerial-strength ceiling, and the case was later transferred to the Supreme Court along with similar matters from other states.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court examined whether Article 194(3) of the Constitution (and the corresponding Entry 39 of List II, which lets a State Legislature define the "powers, privileges and immunities" of the House and its members) could be stretched to justify creating an entirely new ministerial-rank office. The Court held that these provisions are confined to the privileges of legislators acting as legislators, not a source of power to create new executive offices, and that reading such authority into them would be an irrational and unauthorized expansion of legislative competence. Finding no other constitutional provision empowering the State legislature to create the post, the Court held the Assam Legislature lacked competence to enact the law and declared the Assam Parliamentary Secretaries Act, 2004 unconstitutional, allowing the writ petition.
Lesson Learnt
A State legislature cannot use an unrelated constitutional power (here, the power to define legislative "privileges") to manufacture a shadow ministerial post that effectively circumvents an express constitutional ceiling, such as the 15%-of-Assembly-strength cap on the Council of Ministers: courts will look past the label of an office to its real substance and function.