No immediate relief for 6 disqualified Himachal Congress MLAs as Supreme Court won’t hear their petition today
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TNR Desk
The six rebel Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs who were disqualified from the Vidhan Sabha have failed to get immediate reprieve from the Supreme Court as their petition won’t be taken up on Wednesday (March 6, 2024).
The petition was likely to be mentioned for urgent listing on Wednesday, but was not there in cause list in the Supreme Court. The lawyers representing the MLAs have presented the matter in the apex court, which has fixed it for next date.
The political drama in Himachal Pradesh hangs in the balance as all eyes were set on the Supreme Court for the crucial case hearing on Wednesday. The outcome of the hearing was poised to redefine the strategies of both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP in the state. Should the ruling favour the six rebel MLAs, both the BJP and the Congress would be compelled to recalibrate their political strategy.
BJP state president Rajeev Bindal, Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur and national vice-president Saudan Singh HAD to cancel their flight to Delhi for the parliamentary board meeting scheduled after receiving A directive from the high command. The development underscores the party’s focus on internal party matters, possibly influenced by the impending Supreme Court hearing regarding the six Congress rebels.
Disqualified for defying a party whip during the Budget session, the six rebel Congress MLAs on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging state Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania’s February 29 decision to disqualify them under the anti-defection law. Alleging that they were not given adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition, the rebel Congress MLAs submitted that it amounted to violation of the principles of natural justice.
The six rebel MLAs voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha poll which ended in a 34-34 tie, with the three Independents also voting for the saffron party. Mahajan finally defeated Congress nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi after the result was decided by a draw of lots.
Defying the party whip, the petitioner rebel Congress MLAs — Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Davinder Kumar Bhutto, Ravi Thakur and Chaitanya Sharma — had abstained from voting on the Budget. It was on this ground that the Congress had sought their disqualification — the first such decision under the anti-defection law in Himachal Pradesh.
Later, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly had passed the Finance Bill (Budget) by voice vote after Speaker Pathania suspended 15 BJP MLAs. Following their disqualification, the effective strength of the House has been reduced from 68 to 62 and the ruling Congress now has 34 MLAs, instead of 40.
On behalf of the rebel Congress MLAs, senior counsel Satya Pal Jain had submitted that they were given only a show-cause notice and were not supplied a copy of the petition or the annexure and that the seven-day mandatory time allowed for responding to the notice was not given to them.
