SC to hear plea of six disqualified Himachal MLAs on March 12

New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday a plea by six rebel Congress MLAs, who had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, against their disqualification.

The Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, had disqualified the six on the Congress' plea for "defying" the party whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra will hear on March 12 the plea against the February 29 decision of the Speaker.

The rebel lawmakers in their plea before the top court have made Pathania as well as state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan a party.

These Congress rebels, who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, later "abstained" from voting on the Budget. Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had lost the Rajya Sabha election owing to the cross-voting The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur and Chetanya Sharma.

Following their disqualification, the effective strength of the House has gone down from 68 to 62, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk from 40 to 34.

The rebel MLAs, in their petition, have alleged violation of the principle of natural justice, claiming they did not get adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.

For the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh an MLA was disqualified under the anti-defection law aimed at checking defections.

Announcing the disqualification of the six MLAs at a press conference on February 29, the Speaker had said they attracted disqualification under the anti-defection law as they defied the party whip. He ruled that they ceased to be members of the House with immediate effect.

The petition seeking their disqualification was filed by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister before the Speaker for defying the whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

Senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, who appeared for the rebel Congress MLAs, had argued that they were only given the show-cause notice and neither the copy of the petition nor the annexure was supplied.

Jain had said seven days were mandatorily allowed for replying to the notice but no time was given to them.

Under the anti-defection law, any elected member who gives up the membership of a political party voluntarily or votes or abstains from voting in the House, contrary to any direction issued by his political party, is liable for disqualification.

These MLAs had signed the attendance register but abstained from the House during the voting on the Budget, the Speaker said.

These members were issued notices for defying the whip through WhatsApp and e-mail and were asked to appear for the hearing.

The Assembly had passed the Finance Bill by voice vote after the Speaker suspended 15 BJP MLAs.

The Speaker had then adjourned the session.

In his 30-page order, he said the plea of the advocate of the rebel MLAs, Satya Pal Jain, for giving time to reply to the notice was not entertained as "evidence was absolutely clear".

The Speaker said delivering quick judgment was necessary in such cases to maintain the dignity of democracy and check the "Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram" phenomenon.

The judgment had no link with cross-voting by these MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls, the Speaker added. PTI