Sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Monday got a major boost ahead of the confidence vote in the Uttarakhand Assembly today (Tuesday) with the High Court dismissing the petition of nine Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification and the Supreme Court refusing to give any relief to them.
It is advantage Rawat as Justice UC Dhyani of the High Court dismissed two writ petitions filed by the rebel Congress MLAs against the Speaker's action, holding that by their conduct the lawmakers have “voluntarily given up membership of their political party”, a ground for disqualification under the anti-defection law.
“This court, subject to scrutiny of Speaker's action on the principles of natural justice, therefore, holds that the ingredients of paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution are met against the petitioners.
>> See pg 10
