No Stay On Disqualification Of Six Congress MLAs, Supreme Court Seeks Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker's Response

The Supreme Court on Monday (18 March) refused to stay the disqualification of six Congress MLAs on the order of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania.

The Congress MLAs are facing disqualification for cross-voting in the favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate during the recently held Rajya Sabha elections in the state.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta has issued notice to Pathania's office seeking his response to the plea filed by the disqualified Congress MLAs, Hindustan Times reported.

The speaker has been given four-week time to respond and then the rebel MLAs will get a week to file their rejoinder. The matter will be taken up on 6 May for a hearing.

Meanwhile, the disqualified MLAs will not be allowed to vote or participate in the proceedings of the Assembly. The bench has not taken any decision on the by-polls for the so vacated seats.

According to the Election Commission's notification, nomination filing for these seats will begin on 7 May. In the next hearing, the Supreme Court will decide on staying of these by-polls.

Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto were disqualified on 29 February for defying a Congress whip.

Following their disqualification, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly strength went down to 62 from 68 and the Congress currently has 34 MLAs, down from 40.