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The Supreme Court asked six rebel Congress MLAs in Himachal Pradesh as to why they have not moved the high court challenging their disqualification. These six MLAs had cross-voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The Congress had filed a plea against the six MLAs for “defying” the party whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the Himachal Pradesh budget.
Acting upon the plea, Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified the six MLAs on February 29.
The six disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma. With their disqualification, the effective strength of the House has gone down to 62 from 68, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk to 34 from 40.
Later, these MLAs approached the Supreme Court, challenging the Speaker’s decision. Their plea came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra.
The counsel representing the six petitioners requested the bench to adjourn the matter for either March 15 or March 18. He said senior advocate Harish Salve, who would appear for them, was not able to join the proceedings.
The court, however, expressed its doubt over the maintainability of the please under Article 32 of the Constitution. The court asked which fundamental right of the petitioners was violated, Live Law reported.
“But tell us one thing, why didn’t you go to the high court?” Justice Khanna was quoted by PTI as saying. The counsel said the petitioners explained the reasons in the petition. He added that the MLAs were elected as per the provisions of the Constitution.
According to PTI, the rebel MLAs alleged violation of the principle of natural justice, claiming they did not get adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.
The bench observed, “That is not a fundamental right”. The counsel argued, “It is a rare case where within 18 hours, the Speaker disqualified us.” According to Live Law, Justice Khanna noted the dispute around the timing of the disqualification.
The bench posted the matter for hearing on March 18.
These Congress rebels had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had lost the Rajya Sabha election owing to the cross-voting. These MLAs later “abstained” from voting on the Budget.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Published: 12 Mar 2024, 05:10 PM IST
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