Political crisis in Himachal: Six rebel Congress MLAs head to Supreme Court after being disqualified by Speaker

Political crisis in Himachal: The Congress party had issued whips to its members in the House of Representatives during the voting on the state budget.

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania recently took a disciplinary stance against six Congress members who abstained from participating in the voting process during the budget session. These members had earlier shown disloyalty by voting against each other in the previous Rajya Sabha elections. In the aftermath of this move, one of these sanctioned MLAs has expressed his protest by expressing his desire to question the Speaker’s judgment in the Supreme Court.

Notably, the six rebel Congress MLAs had abstained from voting on the Austerity and Finance (Budget) Bill in the assembly, defying a party whip to vote in favor of the government. The ruling Congress had sought their disqualification on this ground.

List of disqualified MLAs

The disqualified MLAs are Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto. A notification was issued in this regard on Thursday evening, which further stated that these six MLAs had ceased to be members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly with effect from February 29.

“Consequently, the seats of Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar constituencies have become vacant and six vacancies have arisen in the fourteenth Vidhan Sabha of HP,” the notice said. The six MLAs who have been disqualified would appeal against the orders in the Supreme Court, Rajinder Rana told PTI on Thursday.

“Only one of the six MLAs received the notice on WhatsApp on February 27 evening and we were present in the House on February 27 and 28,” he said.

After the disqualification of the rebel legislators, the effective strength of the House of Representatives has been reduced from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34. It is the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh that any MLA has taken place . disqualified under the anti-apostasy law aimed at checking apostasy.

Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania mentions the reasons behind disqualification

Announcing the disqualification of the six rebel MLAs at a press conference, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said they were disqualified under the Anti-Defection Act as they defied the whip and ceased to be members of the House of Representatives with immediate effect . These disqualified MLAs, who had voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan for the lone seat in the Rajya Sabha polls, were not present in the House during the Budget voting.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan on Tuesday evening petitioned the Speaker to disqualify these members under the Anti-Defection Act for defying the whip requiring them to be present in the House of Representatives and vote for the budget.

Speaker’s Show-cause Notice to MLAs

The Speaker has issued a show-cause notice to the MLAs and asked them to appear for hearing at 1.30 pm on Wednesday. These MLAs left for Panchkula after voting for the Rajya Sabha polls on Tuesday and arrived for hearing on Wednesday. After hearing arguments from both sides, the Speaker reserved the judgment for Wednesday and announced it on Thursday.

Senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, who appeared for the rebel Congress MLAs, had argued that these MLAs were given only notice and neither the copy of the petition nor its annexure was provided. He said seven days were required to respond to the notice but no time was given.

Under the Anti-Defection Law, any elected member who voluntarily renounces membership of a political party or votes or abstains from voting in the House of Representatives, contrary to the directions of his political party, is liable for disqualification.

The Congress party had issued whips to the members to be present in the House of Representatives during the vote on the approval of the budget. These MLAs had signed the attendance register but abstained from voting in the House during the budget vote, the Speaker said.

These members received a warning via WhatsApp and email for defying the whip and were asked to appear for a hearing. The House passed the Finance Bill by voice vote after Pathania suspended 15 BJP MLAs. The speaker then adjourned the session indefinitely.

In a stunning shock to the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP on Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan, defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi and apparently paving the way for a no-confidence vote in the meeting.

In his 30-page order, the Speaker cited the judgments of the Supreme Court and high courts under the anti-defection law. While narrating the chronology of events, he said the plea of ​​rebel MLAs’ advocate Satya Pal Jain for giving time to respond to the notice was not accepted as “the evidence was absolutely clear”.

The Chairman said that in such cases, speedy judgment is needed to preserve the dignity of democracy and curb the ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’ phenomenon. The verdict has no connection with cross-voting by these MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls, he added.

(With input from agencies)