SC defers hearing the petition of six disqualified MLAs till next Monday: Congress
Supreme Court of India deferred the hearing In the petition moved by the six disqualified MLAs against their disqualification till next week on the request of the counsel of the petitioner, the senior counsel appearing for the speaker informed us.
He said that the division bench of court NO -2 of the Supreme Court of India comprising of Justice Sanjeev Khana, Justice Deepankar Dutt, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra today heard the petition moved by the Six Congress disqualified MLA comprising of Chaitanya Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inderdutt Lakhan Pall, and Devinder Bhutto.
The senior counsel Harish Salve was to appear in the matter for the petitioner but after listing the matter twice in the court he could not join online. After this Justice Khana asked that petitioners instead of moving to the Supreme Court disqualified MLA should move to the high court. Justice Sanjeev Khanna said that it is not a fundamental right of MLAs and they should go to the High Court against the speaker’s order.
The counsel appearing for the petitioners Satpal Jain stated that they had not properly heard by the speaker and this is a rare case and thus they could not take proper legal recourse.
However, Justice Khana stated that the respondent speaker has already opposed the contention by stating that they did not respond to the petition despite services rendered to them by E-mail and WhatsApp before passing of the order.
The petitioner stated that senior counsel Harish Salve would be able to explain this matter more before the Supreme Court therefore the matter either be listed for next Friday or Monday.
The SC now listed the matter on Monday however petitioners did not plead for any further relief before the bench in the matter in favour of disqualified MLAs seeking adjournment.
It is worthwhile to mention here that Six disqualified MLAs were placed disqualified by the speaker on February 29, 2-24 after they defied the Congress Legislative party whips on the two accounts. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan had filed disqualification petition before the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Panthian on February 28 alleging that they defied the whips of CLP on two accounts and, therefore they are liable to be disqualified.
The six disqualified MLAs on February 27, 2-24 also crossed votes in favor of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the Rajaya Sabha poll and Party candidate Abishek Manu Singhvi lost the election by the toss due to the crossing over of six Congress votes. Congress had the majority mark of 40 MLAs in the state assembly and the support of three Independent MLAs however BJP just having 25 seats in the assembly won the RS poll due to defection in the Congress legislative party.
After crossing over the votes in the Rajya Sabha election not voting in favor of financial bills of the state assembly on Feb 28. The six disqualified MLAs huddled in a luxury Taj hotel in Uttrakhand along with three independent and few BJP MLAs before they stayed for ten days in a five-star hotel in Lalit in Haryana. The Congress Government has come in the minority due to the crossing over of votes in the RS and the accompanying of a fragment of six disqualified MLAs and three Independent MLAs if the SC restored their members’ ships.
However, the Congress government has the strength of 34 members in the state assembly with a disqualification of six MLAs and may be toppled by the faction if they get any relief from the SC on Monday. The legal luminaries and political experts in the states say that there are very bleak chances of restoration of the membership of six disqualified MLAs and the major coup in the government within the Congress party has stalled for some time.
Son of Former six-time Chief Minister Vikramaditya Singh showed eagerness to resign after the coup in the Government now supporting Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as the Chief Minister along with Congress state president and mother of Mr Singh Smt Pratibha Singh. Earlier to this the duo showed sympathy with the disqualified MLAs and they praised the Prime Minister and BJP for remarkable work in the state. The political situation in the state is still fluid and nothing could be certain till the legal battle and threat of further defection is looming large.
Congress defeated the BJP in the 2022 assembly elections by winning 40 seats could have hardly sailed 15 months when the government is moving on the sharp edge razor due to discontentment and alluring of many Congress-disqualified MLAs by the BJP.
