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The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed on March 18, as the next date to hear six Himachal Pradesh rebel Congress leader's plea challenging the Assembly's Speaker's decision to disqualify them.
A bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna adjourned the matter for March 18 when the petitioners' advocate informed the top court that they are led by Senior Advocate Harish Salve who is unable to join the hearing. In the meantime, the top court 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. The petitioner advocate responded that they had been elected. However, the court was not convinced by his submission and said that it would take up the matter next Monday. On February 29, the Speaker 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. These rebel legislators have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls. In the voting of the Rajya Sabha election recently, the BJP, which has just 25 MLAs, managed to secure 9 additional votes. The vote thus ended in a 34-34 tie, with three Independents and six Congress MLAs cross-voting for the BJP. Mahajan ended up winning after the result was decided with a draw of lots. (ANI)
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