Shimla, Mar 12,
In the hearing of the matter over the Stay application filed in the Supreme Court by the six dissident Himachal MLAs, there was no immediate relief as the court deferred the matter for next week. The case is now scheduled for Monday.
The matter was heard by a three-judge bench consisting of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Dipankar Datta, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The six disqualified MLAs were represented by Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who could not join the hearing in time. Therefore, the matter was deferred until the afternoon. Later, the Council appearing on behalf of Advocate Salve urged the three-judge bench to defer the matter for either Friday or Monday. The court decided to fix the hearing for next Monday.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi attended the hearing on behalf of Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania and others, but they did not oppose the adjournment.
The six disqualified MLAs brought before the court the argument that since the service was not served to them, the impugned order by the Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly should be dismissed.
In response to the petitioners, Justice Sanjeev Khanna stated that the respondent had challenged the claim, stating that the services had been served through email and WhatsApp (online medium), and the petitioners did not respond.
Justice Khanna also questioned the petitioners about not approaching the High Court before moving to the Supreme Court.
It is noteworthy that all six MLAs – Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inderdutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma, and Devinder Bhutto – have challenged their disqualification in the apex court.
Also read:Six dissident Cong MLAs disqualified from Himachal Vidhan Sabha for ignoring party whip
On February 29, the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Speaker had disqualified the six MLAs for ignoring the two whips issued by the party. Pathania had stated, “Respondents have incurred disqualification under para 2 of the Anti-defection law, and therefore the respondents cease to be members of this August house.” Subsequently, the six MLAs moved the Supreme Court by filing a writ petition against the order. The Parliamentary Affairs minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan had filed disqualification petition before the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 28 alleging that they defied the whips of CLP on two accounts therefore they are liable to be disqualified.
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