New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the disqualification 6 Congress MLAs, who were disqualified for defying party whip and voting against the party nominee during the Rajya Sabha polls. The apex court also denied permission to let them vote or participate in House proceedings.
A bench comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said, "We can issue notice there is no difficulty. There cannot be any stay…”. Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the MLAs, said in the absence of stay on disqualification the petition will become infructuous. Justice Khanna said, “maybe…sorry! That will not be possible…as far as a fresh election is concerned that may be an issue, we have to decide either before the fresh election or we do not allow fresh elections to take place. That we have to put to the opposite side”. “Consequences are for you, we will not allow you to vote and be part of the legislative assembly”, said Justice Khanna.
Salve clarified that he is not asking for voting today. “No, we will not allow you to even participate”, said justice Khanna. Salve replied that is alright and “I can’t be told that sorry elections have been held and somebody else has come in your place”.
The bench said that part it can examine. Salve said give the other side a week’s notice and fix the matter for hearing. The bench reiterated there is no question of disqualified MLAs participating in the assembly proceedings. Salve said there are two separate dimensions: one the court is saying that it will not stay the disqualification and pending this petition, MLAs cannot participate in the House; and the second is the election commission has now notified and now fresh elections cannot be held, as the court will hear the matter.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, representing the Himachal Pradesh government, said if at all the court issues notice and there is no question of your lordships, normally by four judgments, staying any election process.
Justice Khanna reiterated that the court will not stay the disqualification of the 6 MLAs. A counsel submitted that nominations in Himachal Pradesh will start on May 7, and the court may keep the matter before that date. Singhvi said the notice also go to the Election Commission. “Issue notice in the main writ petition as well as stay application…re-list in the week commencing on May 6, 2024. Counter-affidavit to be filed within 4 weeks….”, said the bench, in its order.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had on February 29, 2024 disqualified six MLAs for defying the party whip in not voting for A M Singhvi, a candidate set up by Congress party.
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 six MLAs are: Rajinder Singh Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, and Davinder Bhutto. 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 disqualified MLAs, in their plea before the court, questioned the decision for having not been given sufficient time to respond to notice. The MLAs, in their petition, alleged violation of natural justice and said that they were not given an opportunity to respond to the disqualification order.
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