The Supreme Court docket on Monday refused to remain disqualification of six insurgent Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh Meeting by the Speaker. It mentioned that the court docket can concern discover however there can’t be a keep on disqualification or contemporary elections.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta heard the petition as we speak and issued discover on plea in opposition to disqualification.
Whereas listening to the petition Justice Khanna remarked that so far as the “query of staying the contemporary elections…This can require examination. In any other case, this plea will grow to be infructuous.”
Senior Advocate Abhshek Manu Singhvi who was defeated as a result of these MLAs cross-voted in Rajya Sabha elections advised the court docket that since Article 359 has kicked in by notification of election, there was no query of staying any contemporary elections. “There’s additionally no query of staying the disqualification,” he added.
Justice Khanna mentioned the court docket isn’t staying the disqualification however will look at the query of staying contemporary elections. He additionally mentioned that the court docket will want time to listen to the counsels on each side to look at the difficulty in depth and the case can’t be concluded in 5 minutes.
“Challenge discover in the primary writ petition in addition to the keep utility. Re-list in week commencing Might 6. Counter-affidavit to be filed inside 4 weeks, rejoinder, if any, inside one week. The reply could also be filed by respondent,” the court docket pronounced order.
Within the earlier listening to final week, after initially asking the six disqualified insurgent Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh as to why they didn’t transfer the Excessive Court docket, the Supreme Court docket agreed to listen to their case.
The six insurgent MLAs of the Congress occasion had moved the highest court docket difficult their disqualification by the Speaker from the Himachal Pradesh Meeting. They had been disqualified after they abstained from the funds vote. That they had additionally cross-voted in favour of the BJP Rajya Sabha candidate within the Rajya Sabha elections.
The ex-MLAs have filed a petition within the apex court docket by way of one of many disqualified MLA Chetanya Sharma in opposition to the February 29 determination of the Himachal Pradesh Meeting Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania. The six disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.
Final month, the Himachal Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified these six Congress MLAs by exercising his powers underneath the Anti-Defection legislation. The six disqualified MLAs cross-voted within the recently-concluded Rajya Sabha Elections within the state.
Consequently, Congress candidate and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated by the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in elections to the only seat for Rajya Sabha.
Whereas delivering his verdict, Pathania mentioned he was trying to stop ‘Aya Ram gaya Ram’ politics. This phrase was additionally not too long ago utilized in context of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s return to the NDA. This phrase goes again to the Nineteen Sixties when defections by political leaders had been turning into a standard approach to destabilise elected governments.
In an Meeting of 68 MLAs the Congress had received 40 seats. It additionally had the assist of three unbiased MLAs. When Sukhvinder Sukhu took oath because the chief minister of the state, the Congress was properly above the bulk mark of 35 (required to type a authorities).
After six MLAs had been disqualified, Congress the efficient energy of the Home has gone down from 68 to 62, whereas the variety of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.