Supreme Court protects 6 Congress MLAs from disqualification after Himachal HC ruling

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim relief to six Himachal Pradesh Congress MLAs against disqualification from the State assembly [State of Himachal Pradesh and anr v Kalpana Devi and Ors]..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar stayed a Himachal Pradesh High Court order removing the protection granted against disqualification to the six legislators, who had been appointed as chief parliamentary secretaries by the StateThe Supreme Court also issued notice on an appeal moved by Himachal Pradesh government against the High Court ruling that hae quashed a 2006 law that allowed it to appoint State legislators as parliamentary secretaries.While the law bars legislators from holding 'office of profit' under State or Central government and makes them liable for disqualification in case they hold one, the legislators in Himachal Pradesh on their appointment as chief parliamentary secretaries stood protected in view of a provision of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Members (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1971..After quashing the appointment of six Congress MLAs as chief parliamentary secretaries, the High Court had declared the protection granted to the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) as illegal, saying"Natural consequences and legal implications whereof shall follow forthwith in accordance with law".This meant the legislators could have faced disqualification from the State legislative assembly. However, the same was challenged in a plea moved by the Himachal Pradesh government through advocate Sugandha Anand..The plea assailed the Himachal Pradesh High Court decision to quashed the HP Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances, Powers, Privileges & Amenities) Act, 2006.The law had enabled the State government to appoint MLAs as parliamentary secretaries..The High Court had found it to be violative of Article 164(1-A) that places embargo on the size of cabinet.The parliamentary secretaries perform functions "ancillary /incidental to the office of a Cabinet Minister," the High Court had ruled.This led to the appeal before the apex court.The Supreme Court granted relief to the six Congress MLAs and kept the matter for further hearing in the second week of January 2025..Senior Advocates Maninder Singh, Mukul Rohatgi and Ankush Dasss Sood with Advocates Vir Bahadur Verma, Ankit Dhiman, Prabhas Bajaj, Ragasanan Mohan, Gaurav Chaudhary, Tarun Mehta, Mukul Sharma, Prajwal Busta, Sanjay Kumar and Rakesh Kumar represented the BJP legislators.Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi with Additional Advocates General Navlesh Verma and Puneet Rajta and Advocate Vipul Tiwari represented the State of Himachal Pradesh.