No wrong in Bihar CM appointing Prashant Kishor as advisor: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that there was nothing wrong if a chief minister appointed a special advisor even if the exchequer had to bear expenses related to the appointment.

It refused to entertain a public interest litigation that challenged appointment of election strategist Prashant Kishor as special advisor to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

“He is the chief minister. He can appoint anyone he wants to. He can’t be an expert on everything. He can pay them if he wants to,” Chief Justice of India JS Khehar said while disregarding the PIL.

The CJI asked the petitioner to withdraw the PIL. Kumar had appointed Kishore as advisor (programme and project implementation) of Bihar Vikas Mission which monitors several flagship programmes.

The PIL contended that the CM had the bureaucracy to advise him and that the outside advisor would incur unnecessary expenditure on the exchequer. But the CJI asked: “Who will a chief minister appoint? Somebody he has closely worked with? Somebody who has his trust and faith?”