A two-judge bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday gave separate verdicts in the case of three independent legislators who had approached the court seeking directions against Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Patta Nia accepts the resignation.
A division bench of Chief Justice M Ramachandran Rao and Justice Jyotsana Rewal Dua dismissed the petition challenging the Speaker’s constitutional power to delay accepting resignation A verdict was made.
“Considering that the office of Speaker is highly respected and that in the absence of any extraordinary circumstances, he is the designated authority to decide on the resignation of MLAs under Article 190(3)(b) of the Constitution… I refuse to grant the petitioner’s request. The relief sought, as it amounts to an exercise of the power of adjudication vested in the speaker in the first place… which is not permitted by law,” the judgment delivered by the Chief Justice.
“In my opinion, no direction can be issued to the Speaker requiring him to take a decision on the letter of resignation within the stipulated time. No such request was made at all by the counsel for the petitioner. Therefore, there is no need to discuss the above aspects,” the court said in its judgment.
The court did not express an opinion on the voluntariness or authenticity of the resignation submitted by the petitioner to the Speaker.
Justice Jyotsana Rewal Dua, however, directed the Speaker to decide on the petition within two weeks from the date of judgment.
Attorney General Anup Rattan briefed the media on the case and said the case would be transferred to the third bench.
“The three independent legislators applied that their resignations could be accepted and that the resignations should be accepted by the court itself, however, this request has been dismissed by the court,” he said, adding, “The petition asked the court whether the court can The Speaker issues instructions to make a decision.”
The matter will now come before the Chief Justice, who will further refer the case to the Third Bench.
On March 22, 2024, independent MPs Hoshiyar Singh of Dera, KL Thakur of Nalagarh and Ashish Sharma of Hamirpur submitted a petition to Speaker Vidhan Sabha Kuldeep Singh Patania (Vidhan Sabha Kuldeep Singh Pathania) submitted his resignation and later they met Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla to inform him of their resignation.
A day after submitting their resignations, the three joined the BJP along with six Congress rebels who cross-voted for its candidates in February’s tumultuous Union Lok Sabha elections. The election ultimately led to a political crisis in the state.
Patanya had issued show-cause notices to three independent MLAs and asked them to appear in person to determine whether they resigned voluntarily or under duress, but the trio instead filed a motion with the Supreme Court on the matter.