SC Rejects to Override Speaker of HP Assembly Order Disqualifying MLAs of Rebel Congress
The Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker’s ruling dismissing six Congress rebels for cross-voting in the state’s most recent Rajya Sabha elections was upheld by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The office of HP Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania was notified by a bench consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, requesting a response to the appeal within a fortnight.
The bench said the dissident HP Congress MLAs would not be permitted to vote or take part in Assembly business until their case was decided. The court said, “We will have to investigate whether the elections that have been notified by the ECI are to be stayed during the pendency of the plea on the question of by-election on six vacant seats.”
On May 6, it put the subject up for listing and offered the dissident MLAs a week to submit a response. On May 7, nominations will be accepted for six open assembly seats.
On February 29, the six rebels—Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma, and Ravi Thakur—were disqualified for refusing to follow a Congress whip and vote in favor of the Himachal Pradesh government during the cut motion and budget. The House’s effective strength decreased from 68 to 62 when the rebels were disqualified, while the number of Congress MLAs decreased from 40 to 34.
