News Mania Desk/Sohom Chatterjee/5th September 2024
The State Assembly of Himachal Pradesh has remarkably passed an amended Bill this Wednesday, September 4, that stops the pensions of Assembly members who have been disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law.
Passed in 1985 by the Parliament of India, the Anti-Defection Law, from the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, is a law that prevents political defection, the act of leaving one party to join another party for personal benefits.
Back in February, Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania disqualified six Congress MLAs — Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chetanya Sharma, and Devinder Kumar — under the Anti-Defection Law as they had cross-voted for BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections.
To double down on constraining the defectors from doing so, the Chief Minister of HP, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu introduced the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill, 2024, which discontinues the pension of the MLAs from the defecting parties.
The bill states, “A person shall not be entitled to a pension under the Act if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law).” This act further entitles the government to recover the pension paid to the legislators who have been disentitled under this amendment.
After the Bill was passed in the Assembly, the CM said to ANI, “They want to gain political benefits through such corrupt practices. This Bill was essential to be introduced to strengthen democracy. Our assembly passed it today through voice vote.”
Under Section 6B of the act, every legislator who has served for any period of up to five years is entitled to a pension of Rs 36,000 per month. Section 6(e) further states that every legislator will be given an additional pension of Rs 1,000 per month for every year above the period of the first term.
Hopefully, this Bill will reduce the number of legislators who choose to switch sides for their personal benefits and ensure a better working of the democratic government.
