Himachal Pradesh Assembly passes bill to bar pension of defected MLAs

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill which will bar the members of the House who are disqualified under Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) from drawing pension.

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members (Amendment) Bill, 2024 will affect six former Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by the Speaker for defying the whip and abstaining from the House during discussion on cut motions and passing of Budget in February.

The opposition BJP objected to the Bill stating that it smacks of "political revenge" and it cannot be implemented with retrospective effect.

The six former MLAs who will be impacted due to the Bill are Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Rajinder Rana, Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Chetanya Sharma and Ravi Thakur.

All of them had voted in favour of the BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan during the Rajya Sabha elections held in February. All six had contested the bypolls on BJP tickets earlier this year. While Sudhir Sharma and Lakhanpal got re-elected, the other four lost.

Himachal is first state in the country to pass such a bill under which "A person shall not be entitled for pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution".

The statement of object and reasons of the Amendment Bill passed by voice vote said it was necessitated as there was no provision in the 1971 Act to discourage the defection of members, protect the mandate given by the people, preserve democratic values and deterrence towards "constitutional sin". The Bill would become Act after the consent of the governor.

Replying to discussion on the Bill, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said six Congress MLAs betrayed the Congress party and the Bill is aimed at strengthening the democratic values and deter the MLAs from defection. Rakesh Jamwal (BJP) said the Bill has been brought in a haste and asked how it can be implemented retrospectively.

Leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur said the Bill smells of "political revenge" and the Congress members had not joined the BJP at the time of voting for Rajya Sabha polls. The Speaker disqualified them for violating the party whip and as such they do not attract action under the Tenth Schedule, he added.

Randhir Sharma (BJP) said the Bill has been brought out of vengeance and added that the Congress MLAs who voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls were not defectors and demanded that the Bill be sent to the Select Committee. Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi defended the Bill and said defection weakens democracy and defectors should be punished for this action.