SC to hear plea of disqualified HP legislators on March 18

The Supreme court on Tuesday [12 March 2024] listed March 18 as the next date to hear the plea of six Himachal Pradesh rebel congress leaders challenging the assembly speaker’s decision to disqualify them.

A bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna adjourned the matter for March 18 after they were informed by the petitioners that the lead advocate Harish Salve was not available to participate in the hearing.

The top court also sought to know from the rebel legislators why they hadn’t moved to the concerned High Court with their grievances and what fundamental rights had been violated.

On February 29, the Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls. The six MLAs who had been disqualified were Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Davinder K Bhutto, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal under the anti-defection law.

After the 2022 Assembly elections, the Congress had 40 MLAs, while the BJP had 25 in the 68-member state assembly. The remaining three seats are held by independents. During the Rajya Sabha polls the 6 MLA’s and 3 independents had cross voted thus ending the vote in a 34-34 tie. The result was later decided by draw of lots which favored BJP Candidate Harsh Mahajan.