Six ex-Cong MLAs withdraw plea from Supreme Court against disqualification from HP Assembly
New Delhi, May 10: Six former Congress MLAs Friday withdrew their plea from the Supreme Court against the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker's decision to disqualify them from the House.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was told by senior advocate Abhinav Mukherjee, appearing for the former MLAs, that they want to withdraw the petition.
"We knew this was going to happen due to the elections," the bench observed while allowing them to withdraw their plea.
The six former MLAs are now contesting as the BJP candidates the assembly bypolls which were necessitated after their disqualification.
The six former Congress MLAs -- Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar Bhutto -- were disqualified on February 29, for defying a Congress whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the Himachal Pradesh government during the cut motion and budget.
According to the notification issued on March 16 by the poll panel, assembly byelections are scheduled to be held in the Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul and Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar constituencies that fell vacant after the disqualification of the six lawmakers on June 1 alongwith with polling for the four Lok Sabha seats in the state.
On March 18, the top court had refused to stay the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker's order disqualifying the former MLAs who had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls in the state.
It had issued notice to the office of Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania and sought its response within four weeks on a plea by the former MLAs.
The top court had said pending adjudication of their plea, these disqualified MLAs will not be allowed to vote or participate in the proceedings of the assembly.
Following the disqualification of the rebels, the effective strength of the House has gone down to 62 from 68, while the number of Congress MLAs has shrunk to 34 from 40.
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Allahabad HC asks Moradabad DM to act against 'illegal' construction of temple in public park
Prayagraj (UP), May 20: The Allahabad High Court has directed the district magistrate and station house officer (SHO) concerned to take appropriate action in accordance with law regarding the alleged illegal construction of a temple in a public park of Awas Vikas Parishad at Buddh Vihar, Majhola in Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by Neeraj Kumar Tyagi, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Vikas Budhwar directed the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad, Moradabad to approach the DM and SHO concerned by way of an exhaustive application pertaining to the alleged illegal construction.
The petitioner has alleged that some people are illegally constructing a temple in a public park in the Awas Vikas Colony. When the matter was brought to the knowledge of the Awas Vikas executive engineer, he sent a junior engineer to the spot, who asked those involved in the construction to stop the work, but it was not stopped.
Thereafter, the executive engineer approached the Majhola SHO. However, when no action was taken, he wrote to the DM but despite this, no action has been taken so far.
Hence, the petitioner filed the petition in the court seeking the removal of the illegal construction from the park. During the course of the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner, Rajvendra Singh, contended that the Uttar Pradesh government issued an order dated October 29, 2009, prohibiting the construction of temples, churches, mosques, gurdwaras etc. on public roads, parks and public places. In this backdrop, he requested the court to intervene and direct the authorities concerned to take appropriate steps.
The petitioner also requested the court to grant him time to implead those involved in raising the construction as respondents in the PIL.
After hearing the petitioner's counsel, the court, in its order dated May 15, observed, "A perusal of the petition clearly indicates that construction is going on in the park and despite the Awas Evam Vikas Parishad requiring the police to intervene and stop the illegal construction, apparently, nothing has been done either by the district administration or the police station concerned."
The court has fixed July 8 for the next hearing in the matter.
