Himachal Pradesh High Court reserves verdict on plea filed by 3 Independent MLAs

Vijay Arora

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, April 30

The HP High Court today reserved its verdict on a petition filed by three independent MLAs alleging therein that the Speaker is not accepting their resignations from the Legislative Assembly and sought intervention of the court in this regard.

After hearing the matter at length a division bench comprising the Chief Justice MS Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua reserved its judgment.

The hearing was started today at 4.15 pm and counsels for petitioners as well as for the Speaker appeared before the court through video conference. Senior counsel Maninder Singh appeared for the petitioners and senior advocate Kapil Sibal represented the Speaker of Vidhan Sabha before the court.

The three independent MLAs Hoshiar Singh Chambyal from Dehra constituency, KL Thakur from Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur constituency had submitted their resignations from the membership of the Assembly to the Secretary of the Assembly on March 22. Later, they met Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania personally and requested for the acceptance of their resignations. Subsequently, they also met with Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla.

The three MLAs have approached the High Court against the non-acceptance of their resignation by the Speaker till date.

The trio have filed a petition against not accepting the resignations and issuing showcause notices to them by the Speaker. They have contended that they voluntarily submitted their resignations without any coercion and the Speaker should accept the resignation. The petitioners alleged in the petition that the Speaker of the Assembly instead of accepting their resignation has issued showcause notices to them for seeking their response in this regard. It was further alleged that the action of the Speaker is arbitrary and wrong. 

Speaker’s action ‘arbitrary’

• Three have filed a petition against non-acceptance of the resignations and issuing of showcause notices to them by Speaker
• They have contended that they voluntarily submitted their resignations without any coercion
• The petitioners alleged that the Speaker, instead of accepting their resignation, has issued showcause notices to them
• It was further alleged by the three Independent legislators that the action of the Speaker is arbitrary and wrong

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