Major relief for Congress and Harish Rawat.
The Uttarakhand High Court has dismissed plea of 9 rebel Congress MLAs who were disqualified under the anti-defection law by the state assembly speaker.
So in effect, their disqualification stays and they will not be able to take part in the floor test in the assembly to be held tomorrow, May 10.
The rebel MLAs who were earlier disqualified have approached Supreme Court as a last ditch effort. Speaker of the assembly has filed an caveat in SC, demanding that if this order is challenged in SC, he must be heard.
This is a major boost to the Congress Party ahead of the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly, The Uttarakhand High Court had earlier reserved its verdict on the nine disqualified rebel Congress MLAs till today.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal and senior advocate Amit Sibal, counsel for Congress Chief Whip Indira Hridayesh, concluded their arguments, stressing on the legitimacy of the disqualification.
The nine Congress MLAs had stood against their party on March 18 and supported the BJP by asking for a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill.
The President's rule will temporarily be lifted on Tuesday and former chief minister Harish Rawat will seek the confidence vote in the house. SC allowed for floor test earlier without the participation of 9 rebel MLAs.
Earlier, an apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had on April 27 directed the continuation of President's rule in Uttarakhand. The Centre had imposed President's rule in the state on March 27 claiming that the Harish Rawat government has lost majority in the assembly. Arun Jaitley alleged that speaker has murdered democracy. Congress on the other hand said that BJP is trying to throttle democracy by imposing President's rule.
With agency inputs
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