6 rebel Congress legislators disqualified

• Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania disqualified six rebel Congress legislators from the membership of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha under the provision of the anti-defection law.
  • The six MLAs who have been the disqualified are Sudhir Sharma (Dharamsala), Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul-Spiti), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret) and Davinder Bhutto (Kutlehar).
• It is first-ever disqualification of any MLA under the anti-defection law in the history of Himachal Pradesh.

BRIEF OF ANTI DEFECTION LAW

• The anti-defection law (found under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution) was enacted to curb frequent floor-crossing by legislators.
• It was added to the Constitution through 52nd Amendment Act in 1985.
• The decision on questions as to disqualification on ground of defection are referred to the Chairman or the Speaker of such House, which is subject to ‘Judicial review’.
• Grounds for Defection
  • An elected member voluntarily gives up his membership of a political party.
  • An elected member votes or abstains from voting in such House, contrary to any direction issued by his political party or anyone authorized to do so, without obtaining prior permission.
  • If any independently elected member joins any political party.

If any nominated member joins any political party after the expiry of six months.