Supreme Court refuses to stay Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker order disqualifying rebel Congress MLAs

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 18

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the disqualification of six Himachal Pradesh rebel Congress MLAs who were acted against by the state Legislative Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29 under the anti-defection law.

A Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna also refused to allow them to take part in the assembly proceedings.

The Bench–which also included Justice Dipankar Datta — however, issued notice to the state assembly Speaker on their petition.

“Issue notice in the main writ petition as well as the stay application. Re-list in week commencing May 6,” the Bench said.

The Bench asked the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker to respond to the petition in four weeks and gave one week to the petitioners to file their rejoinder, if any.

“We can issue notice… That’s fine. But there will be no stay. Second, as far as fresh election is concerned, we have to decide… But we’ll not allow you to vote and be a part of legislative assembly. We won’t allow you to participate (in the proceedings of the assembly),” Justice Khanna told the petitioners.

As senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the petitioners, said that they shouldn’t be told that elections have been held and someone else has come in, the Bench said it will examine the issue.

Senior advocate AM Singhvi submitted on behalf of the Speaker that Article 359 has kicked in by notification of election. “No question of staying any fresh election. There’s also no question of staying the disqualification,” Singhvi argued.

“We are not going to stay the disqualification,” Justice Khanna told Singhvi.

As senior counsel Maninder Singh said on behalf of the Election Commission that polls were set to be notified soon, the Bench said, “They (EC) can delay it.”

“The writ petition was filed prior to notification…Then there will be a bar,” said Justice Datta.

Senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, who appeared for the petitioner rebel Congress MLAs, pointed out that the date of filing of nominations has been notified as May 7. He urged the top court to take up the matter before that.

The six rebel Congress MLAs — Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto — were disqualified for defying a Congress whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the Himachal Pradesh government during the cut motion and budget.

They had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, resulting in the defeat of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Asking what fundamental rights of the petitioners were violated, the Bench had on March 12 wondered why the petitioners didn’t approach the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

The rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified for defying a party whip during the Budget session.

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 Congress MLAs had voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls 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 a party whip, the petitioner rebel Congress MLAs 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.

Acting on a disqualification petition filed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan, the Speaker had on February 29 ruled that the rebel Congress MLAs attracted disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution i.e. the anti-defection law and ceased to be members of the House with immediate effect for defying the party whip. They had signed the attendance register but abstained from the House during the voting on the Budget, said the Speaker who had issued notices to them through Whatsapp and e-mail requiring them to appear for hearing.

Noting that a quick decision on disqualification petition was necessary to maintain the dignity of democracy and to check the “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” phenomenon, the Speaker had clarified that his verdict had no link with the cross-voting by the rebel Congress MLAs in the Rajya Sabha polls.

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.

The Speaker had turned down Jain’s request for time to respond to the notice, saying the “evidence was absolutely clear”.