The Supreme Court is set to hear on March 18 a plea filed by six Congress rebels who cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, challenging their disqualification from the state assembly.
The six rebels—Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma, and Devinder Kumar Bhutto—were disqualified for disobeying a Congress whip to attend the House and vote in favor of the Himachal Pradesh government during the cut motion and budget session.
According to the cause list of Monday posted on the apex court website, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench consisting of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta.
During the plea’s hearing in the top court on March 12, the bench inquired why the petitioners had not approached the high court to challenge their disqualification. The counsel representing the petitioners remarked it was an unusual case where the Speaker disqualified these MLAs within 18 hours.
The petitioners have named Pathania, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, and others as party respondents in their plea.
In the aftermath of the disqualification of the rebels, the effective strength of the House has decreased to 62 from 68, with the number of Congress MLAs diminishing to 34 from 40. The rebel MLAs, in their petition, have alleged a violation of the principle of natural justice, asserting they were not afforded adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.
The Speaker, in a press conference on February 29, announced the disqualification of the six MLAs, citing their breach of the anti-defection law by defying the party whip. He declared their immediate cessation of membership in the House. The petition seeking their disqualification was submitted by the Himachal Pradesh parliamentary affairs minister to the Speaker for their defiance of the whip mandating their presence in the House and vote for the budget.
Under the anti-defection law, any elected member who voluntarily relinquishes party membership or votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to party directives is subject to disqualification. The Speaker noted that these MLAs had signed the attendance register but abstained from voting during the budget session. They were served notices for their defiance via WhatsApp and email and summoned for a hearing.
Following the suspension of 15 BJP MLAs by the Speaker, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed the Finance Bill by voice vote before adjourning the session. In his 30-page order, the Speaker disregarded the plea of the rebel MLAs’ lawyer, senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, for additional time to respond, asserting the evidence was unequivocal. He emphasized the necessity of swift judgment in such cases to uphold the integrity of democracy and combat the phenomenon of frequent party switching.
The Speaker clarified that the judgment had no link with cross-voting by these MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls.
