'Why didn't you approach HC, which fundamental right violated,' SC asks Himachal Pradesh's disqualified Congress MLAs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned six Congress MLAs who were disqualified for defying party whip and voting against the party nominee during the Rajya Sabha polls, as to which of their fundamental rights were violated by the action taken against them by the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra also asked senior advocate Satya Pal Jain, appearing for the MLAs, why did petitioners not approach the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Jain said it is one of the rare cases where the MLAs have been disqualified within 18 hours.

"What is the fundamental right violated here," the bench asked the counsel who said the petitioners have been duly elected by the people.

"But that is not fundamental right," the bench said.

As Jain submitted that the petitioners would be led by senior advocate Harish Salve who could not join the proceedings, the bench posted the matter for hearing on Monday.

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania had on February 29, 2024 disqualified six MLAs for defying the party whip by not voting for A M Singhvi, a candidate set up by Congress party.

The six MLAs — Rajinder Singh Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, and Davinder Bhutto — had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan, who won by draw of lots after a tie of 34 votes each in the 68-member Assembly.

In their plea before the court, the disqualified MLAs questioned the decision for having not been given sufficient time to respond to notice.