New Delhi:

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on March 18 a plea filed by six Congress rebels who cross-voted in the recent Union Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh against their disqualification from the state assembly.

Six rebels – Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto – for defying the Congress whip by attending the House and voting for it during the reduction motion Himachal Pradesh government was disqualified and budgeted.

The plea will be heard by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, according to the list of reasons uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website on Monday.

When the Supreme Court heard the petition on March 12, the bench asked the petitioners why they had not approached the High Court challenging their disqualification. Lawyers representing the petitioners said it was rare for the Speaker to disqualify MLAs within 18 hours.

The petitioners have named Pathania, state parliamentary affairs minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan and others as party respondents in their plea before the Supreme Court.

After the rebels were disqualified, the effective number of members of the House of Representatives was reduced from 68 to 62, while the number of MPs was reduced from 40 to 34.

In their petition, the rebel MLAs alleged a violation of principles of natural justice, claiming they were not given adequate opportunity to respond to the disqualification petition.

The Speaker announced the disqualification of six MLAs at a press conference on February 29, saying they were disqualified under the anti-defection law for defying party whips. He ruled that they ceased to be members of the House of Representatives immediately.

Himachal Pradesh Parliamentary Affairs Minister submitted a petition to the Speaker seeking their disqualification for flouting the whip requiring them to attend the House and vote for the budget.

Under the anti-defection law, any elected member who voluntarily renounces membership of a political party or votes or abstains from voting in the House of Representatives in violation of any instructions issued by his or her party will be disqualified.

The Speaker said these MLAs had signed the attendance register but abstained from voting in the House during the budget vote. They were notified of the caning defiance via WhatsApp and email and were asked to attend the hearing.

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed the Finance Bill in a voice vote after the Speaker suspended 15 BJP legislators. The speaker then adjourned the meeting.

In his 30-page order, he said a request by senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, counsel for the rebel MLAs, for time to reply to the notice was not considered as “the evidence is absolutely clear “. The Speaker said that in such a situation, judgment must be taken quickly to preserve the dignity of democracy and curb the “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” phenomenon.

The speaker added that the verdict had nothing to do with the cross-voting of these MLAs in the federal house polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)