The Supreme Court declined to stay the disqualification of six rebel Congress MLAs from Himachal Pradesh, who had been removed from office on February 29 by Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania in accordance with the anti-defection law.

“We can issue a notice… But there will be no stay. Second, as far as a fresh election is concerned, we have to decide… But we’ll not allow you to vote and be a part of the Legislative Assembly. We won’t allow you to participate (in the proceedings of the Assembly),” Justice Khanna told senior advocate Harish Salve, who represented the petitioners.

They were also denied permission to participate in the Assembly proceedings while the case was pending before the highest court by a bench chaired by Justice Sanjiv Khanna.

On their petition, the Bench—which also included Justice Dipankar Datta—did, however, send a notice to the Assembly Speaker’s office.

Both the stay application and the main writ petition should contain a notice. Re-list in the week starting on May 6th, the Bench declared.
The Bench gave the petitioners one week to file any rejoinders they may have and instructed the Speaker of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly to reply to the petition within four weeks.

Six rebel Congress MLAs who were disqualified for refusing to follow a Congress whip. They had cast cross-party votes, which led to to Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi losing the Rajya Sabha seat.