India News | Himachal: Bill Introduced to Stop Pension of MLAs Disqualified for Defection
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A bill was introduced in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday proposing to stop the pensions of members disqualified under the anti-defection law.
Shimla, Sep 3 (PTI) A bill was introduced in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday proposing to stop the pensions of members disqualified under the anti-defection law.
The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill 2024 was introduced by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
According to the bill, "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 (anti-defecation law)".
Six Congress MLAs -- Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar -- were disqualified in February this year under the anti-defection law for defying a party whip by abstaining from the house during the passing of the budget for 2024-25 and discussions on a cut motion.
Sudhir Sharma and Inder Dutt Lakhanpal later returned to the house after winning bypolls, but the four others lost their reelection bid.
These six Congress MLAs had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections held on February 27 this year.
The statement of object and reasons of the proposed amendment says the bill was needed as there was no provision in the 1971 Act to discourage the defection of members, deter them from committing constitutional sins, protect the mandate given by people and preserve democratic values.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)