Himachal Pradesh Assembly Passes Bill To Revoke Pensions Of Disqualified MLAs

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill 2024 was introduced by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday.

The Himachal Pradesh assembly on Wednesday passed a bill to revoke the pensions of MLAs disqualified under the anti-defection law.

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill 2024 was aimed at revoking the pensions of six former Congress MLAs who were disqualified. 

The bill was was introduced by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday. According to the bill, "A person shall not be entitled for pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law)".

The Bill would become Act after the consent of the governor. 

Six Congress MLAs -- Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar -- were disqualified in February this year under the anti-defection law for defying a party whip.

These six Congress MLAs had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections held on February 27 this year. The six candidates had contested the bypolls on BJP tickets earlier this year. While Sudhir Sharma and Lakhanpal got re-elected, the other four lost. 

The opposition BJP objected to the Bill stating that it smacks of political revenge and cannot be implemented with retrospective effect. 

Leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur said the Bill smells of political revenge and the Congress members had not joined the BJP at the time of voting for Rajya Sabha polls. "The Speaker disqualified them for violating the party whip and as such they do not attract action under the Tenth Schedule," he added.

BJP leader Randhir Sharma said the Bill has been brought out of vengeance and added that the Congress MLAs who voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls were not defectors and demanded that the Bill be sent to the Select Committee. 

Himachal has become the first state in the country to pass such a bill under which a person shall not be entitled for pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.