SC To Hear Plea By 6 Rebel Congress MLAs From Himachal Against Disqualification On Monday

After initially asking the six disqualified rebel Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh as to why they did not move the High Court, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear there case on next Monday.

The six rebel MLAs of the Congress party had moved the top court challenging their disqualification by the Speaker from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly

Source : PTI

After initially asking the six disqualified rebel Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh as to why they did not move the High Court, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear there case on next Monday.

The six rebel MLAs of the Congress party had moved the top court challenging their disqualification by the Speaker from the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. They were disqualified after abstained from budget vote. They had also cross-voted in favour of the BJP Rajya Sabha candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Dipankar Datta, and Justice PK Mishra heard the matter today and asked why the disqualified MLAs can't go to Himchal Pradesh.

Senior Advocate Satya Pal Jain appearing for the MLAs requested for an adjournment as Senior Advocate Harish Salve who is leading the case was unable to join. Jain sought an urgent hearing saying that it's a rare case where MLAs were disqualified within 18 hours.

The ex-MLAs have filed a petition in the apex court through Chetanya Sharma against the February 29 decision of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. The six disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma. 

Last month, the Himachal Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified these six Congress MLAs by exercising his powers under the Anti-Defection law. The six disqualified MLAs cross-voted in the recently-concluded Rajya Sabha Elections in the state.

As a result, Congress candidate and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated by the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in elections to the single seat for Rajya Sabha.

While delivering his verdict, Pathania said he was looking to prevent 'Aya Ram gaya Ram' politics. This phrase was also recently used in context of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's return to the NDA. This phrase goes back to the 1960s when defections by political leaders were becoming a common way to destabilise elected governments.

In an Assembly of 68 MLAs the Congress had won 40 seats. It also had the support of three independent MLAs. When Sukhvinder Sukhu took oath as the chief minister of the state, the Congress was well above the majority mark of 35 (required to form a government).

After six MLAs were disqualified, Congress the effective strength of the House has gone down from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.