Shimla, Mar 18
Without providing any immediate relief, the hearing on the matter of the six rebel Congress MLAs who were disqualified from the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan sabha has now been listed for another date as the apex court grants four weeks to file reply & rejoinder to petitioner as well as to the respondents. A bench headed by Justice Sanjeev Khanna, and Justice Depankar Dutt in the Supreme court of India while assuring petitioners that the matter will be decided before the date of filing nomination as scheduled by Election Commission of India, sent notices to respondent Speaker Vidhan Sabha and others, in the matter.
Justice Khanna said that before issuing of notification on May 8, the court would dispose off the matter by May 6 to allow the members to go for election if needed. Noteworthy that as per the ECI schedule for Bye elections on these 6 seats of Himachal Pradesh, the proceedings will start from May, as polling on these seats has been scheduled for June 1.
The court also refused to stay the assembly Speaker’s decision to disqualify the rebel leaders and it also denied permission to vote or participate in the house proceedings.
The six disqualified MLAs were represented by Senior Advocate Harish Salve. Petitioner stated that all the MLAs were present in the assembly but they were disqualified without granting them to opportunity to respond. Salve stated that Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated in the Rajya sabha poll and plan was made to disqualify them without giving them enough time for the hearing by the speaker.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi attended the hearing on behalf of Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania and others. Appearing for the speaker, Secretary Vidhan Sabha and Parliamentary Affairs minister Harshvardhan, senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi opposed the petition stating that sufficient time was given to petitioners for the hearing before the speaker. Sibal added that even the counsel for petitioners appeared and presented before the speaker before passing of the order. he also stated that the MLAs also received notices in the matter.
Also read: https://himachalscape.com/no-immediate-relief-for-six-dissident-himachal-mlas-from-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.
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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