Abhishek Manu Singhvi Appears To Oppose Plea By Six Disqualified Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs Who Cross Voted For BJP To Defeat Singhvi In Rajya Sabha Election

The Supreme Court today adjourned the plea filed by six Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification owing to their defying the party whip to remain present in the assembly for voting on the state budget. Incidentally, the same Congress MLAs cross-voted for the BJP to defeat Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha election.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the respondents to oppose the plea of the MLAs.

Senior Advocate Singhvi, a Senior Congress leader, had lost the Rajya Sabha election owing to cross-voting by the Petitioner MLAs. The Congress MLAs had cross-voted for the BJP in the recent Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, prompting their disqualification by Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on February 29.

The MLAs were not disqualified for defeating the Congress party's candidate Singhvi, since cross-voting in Rajya Sabha elections does not entail disqualification.

The Petitioner MLAs who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27, had later "abstained" from voting on the budget. The Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Kuldeep Singh Pathania, had disqualified the six on the Congress's plea for defying the party whip that required them to be present in the House and vote for the budget.

The plea was listed for hearing before the Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Dipankar Datta, and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The counsel representing the six petitioners requested an adjournment due to the unavailability of Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who was set to represent them.

Justice Khanna asked the Counsel, "But tell us one thing: why didn't you go to the High Court?"

The counsel responded, "There are two-three reasons... It is a rare case where within 18 hours, the Speaker disqualified us. No copy supplied."

The Court then asked the Counsel as to what is the fundamental right of the MLAs that has been violated, for them to approach the Supreme Court.

Accordingly, the Court adjourned the matter for hearing on Monday, i.e. March 18.

The disqualified MLAs are Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhutoo, Ravi Thakur, and Chaitanya Sharma.

On February 29, during a press conference, the Speaker had declared the disqualification of the six MLAs. Citing their defiance of the party whip, he invoked the anti-defection law, ruling that they immediately ceased to be members of the House.

Cause Title: Chaitanya Sharma and Ors. v. Speaker, Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Ors. [W.P. (C) No. 156/2024]