Supreme Court refuses to stay disqualification of Six Congress rebel MLAs, next hearing on May 6.
Delhi:
The six Congress rebel MLAs disqualified by the Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Assembly, did not get relief from the Supreme Court in Delhi today on their petitions seeking stay on their disqualification and by-elections process.
A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, which included Justice Dipankar Dutta turned down their request to allow them to participate in the proceedings of HP Vidhan Sabha.
The Bench was hearing the petitions of six Congress rebel MLAs- Sudhir Sharma, Rajender Rana, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chaitanya Sharma and Devinder Bhutto.
The Bench issued notices to Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep singh Pathania and Secretary HP Vidhan Sdabha to respond within four weeks and gave one week for filing a rejoinder if any by the petitioners.
The Apex court has listed the matter for May 6 to decide about staying the by-elections for the six Assembly constituencies represented by the rebel Congress MLAs, before issuing of notification for starting the election process on May 7.
The six rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified for defying a Congress whip directing them to vote for Himachal Budget and cut motion.
They had voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in Rajya Sabha election leading to defeat of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on February 27.
