In a major embarrassment to the Congress, less than a week before October 15 polls in Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday “disqualified” five “defector” MlAs, including two sitting Cabinet Ministers, from the State Assembly.
The five MlAs — Satpal Sangwan, Vinod Bhayana, Narendra Singh, Zile Ram Sharma and Dharam Singh — defected to the Congress after winning 2009 State Assembly polls on Haryana Janhit Congress’ ticket that enable Bhupinder Singh Hooda to form the Government in 2009.Besides, Justice K Kannan has also disqualified five MlAs from holding any remunerative political post from November 9 and 10, 2009 for “period provided under Article 361-B of the Constitution” — that is the date on which their term as members expires, or till the date they contest the elections to the House and are declared elected, whichever is earlier.
At the time of merger, Congress was six short of absolute majority in the 90-member House. Five, out of total six MlAs of Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (Bl), had then announced merger of the party with Indian National Congress, which was also accepted by the then Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chattha on November 9, 2009, recognizing them as INC members in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
The same was challenged by Bishnoi, whose application was rejected by the then Speaker Kuldeep Sharma on January 13, 2013, and thus the matter was brought under the High Court scanner.Justice Kannan, setting aside the Speaker’s orders in favour of the merger, had termed his decision as “egregious” and “bad in law”. “Speaker’s decisions at the first and at the second level are not vitiated merely by error in reasoning,” he stated.
Holding that the Speaker’s decision of accepting the merger was also “against the constitutional mandate”, Justice K Kannan asserted, “The order accepting the merger on November 9, 2009, was hasty, sans basis and without undertaking the minimum collection of data regarding the decision of the original political party.”
Justice Kannan went on to add, “I have not enough materials to affirm what the petitioner is urging for, that the Speaker was spirited by any mala fide in the decision that he ultimately took.”
The matter was first brought before the High Court in 2010, and the Speaker took more than three years to decide. In the meantime, Congress MlA Kuldeep Sharma was elected the Speaker in place of Harmohinder Singh Chattha in March 2011, during the pendency of the matter before the Division Bench of the High Court.
Justice Kannan observed, “The person that passed an order on November 9, 2009, is not the person who ultimately passed the order upholding the decision. With the discontinuity of the persons who held the office of Speaker, I cannot find that one was supporting another for the mala fide cause.”
In his order running into 57 pages, Justice Kannan pointed to the arguments where it was contended that four of the five MlAs had been made ministers under the Congress regime, “that probably brings to truth what the bargain was to defect, but will not give room for inference of mala fides for the Speaker’s decision”.
Ruling that there was “absolutely no proof of merger of the original political party”, Justice Kannan stated, “If I say that the decision of the Speaker in the first instance on November 9, 2009, was against the constitutional mandate, I say so because the letter written by the legislators on November 9, 2009, and the decision taken on the same day were literally on no evidence produced”.
He added, “The Speaker, who received the letter from the Congress Party that HJC (Bl) had merged with them, did not think it necessary surprisingly to look for a similar letter even from the leader of that political party which had merged.”
Pointing that the Speaker had “no material at all to take such a decision”, Justice Kannan ruled that “he had abdicated the constitutional trust in having to render a decision which was sacrosanct”.
“The reasoning adopted by the Speaker for coming to the decision is wholly against the mandate of the Constitution requiring the Speaker’s satisfaction that two-third members of the original political party merged with another party,” stated the Bench.
Parting with the orders, Justice Kannan said: I hold the impugned order rendered on January 13, 2013, by the Speaker to be bad in law and hence set aside. The consequences will be that the original decision taken by the Speaker on November 9, 2009, admitting the plea of merger is also not valid”.
Allowing the petition seeking disqualification of five MlAs filed by HJC head Kuldeep Bishnoi, Justice Kannan concluded, “Any actions performed or decisions taken, while already occupying such remunerative political post till the time of pronouncement of this judgment shall not be rendered invalid. The writ petition is allowed. There shall be, however, no direction as to costs”.