Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking to be heard before it passes any order on the disqualification of six MLAs. The apex court is expected to hear a petition filed by these rebel MLAs challenging their disqualification, tomorrow.
Six rebel MLAs had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha elections after which, the Speaker had disqualified them for defying the whip. Following their cross-voting on February 27, Congress candidate Abhishek Singhvi was defeated while BJP leader Harsh Mahajan won.
The state government has requested Supreme Court to hear their side before issuing any interim order in the case. A three-member bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra can hear the hearing in court no. 2 on Tuesday. The government has argued that the rebel MLAs were disqualified by the Speaker on solid ground. The MLAs, in their petition alleged of violation of natural justice and said that they were not given opportunity to respond to the disqualification order.
The case, listed in Congress MLA Chaitanya Sharma and others vs Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker and others case, is at number 36 in the cause list of the Supreme Court. Advocate Tushar Mehta will represent on behalf of the rebel MLAs namely Chaitanya Sharma, Indradutt Lakhanpal, Rajendra Rana, Ravi Thakur, Sudhir Sharma and Devendra Bhutto.
The defendants are Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, minister Harshvardhan Chauhan and others.
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