Himachal Pradesh High Court issues notice to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Mahajan over Cong leader Singhvi’s ‘draw of lots’ plea

BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan won the February 27 election through a draw of lots after both candidates secured 34 votes each. Mahajan was sworn in as a Rajya Sabha member on April 3.

Meanwhile, the high court declined to accept the plea of Singhvi’s counsel, senior advocate Neeraj Gupta, that a notice should be served to Harsh Mahajan through email. Sources said that the high court observed that the notice should go as per the normal process.

Talking to The Indian Express, Neeraj Gupta said, “The honourable high court issued a notice to Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Mahajan over the plea of Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. The Rajya Sabha election was tied between the two candidates… The beauty of this case is that there are no disputed facts. We are on principles of laws. What procedure was followed by the returning officer while declaring Harsh Mahajan the winning candidate? There is non-compliance with Section 65 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951. We request the high court to serve the notice to Mahajan through email but the court suggests that notice should go through regular process.”

When the elections to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh were held on February 27, the ruling Congress had 40 MLAs. The BJP, with 25 members in the House, fielded Congress turncoat Mahajan against Singhvi. Six Congress members cross-voted in favour of Mahajan, who also secured three votes from Independent MLAs. With both candidates tied at 34 votes each, Mahajan was declared the winner through a draw of lots.

The Conduct of Election Rules has a provision for the draw of lots for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections in case of a tie. The key difference is that in Rajya Sabha polls, the candidate whose slip is drawn loses the election, whereas in the Lok Sabha, the candidate whose slip is drawn wins.

“There is nothing in the law, neither in the act nor in the rules which compels an interpretation which requires that the person whose name is drawn in the draw of lots is a loser. This interpretation is wrong and the result of an election which was based on this interpretation is also wrong,” Singhvi had told reporters after filing his petition in the Himachal Pradesh High Court on April 6.

“It defies common sense, old tradition and practices, anywhere and everywhere in the world that whenever there is a tie between two people, the person whose name is drawn… should be the winner and not the loser. If our contentions are accepted ultimately by the high court, the result declared would have to be declared to be wrong,” Singhvi had said.

Following the Rajya Sabha election, a crisis erupted in the Congress, which also saw the Vidhan Sabha Speaker disqualifying six party MLAs, who had voted in favour of Mahajan. The Speaker, however, had made it clear that the MLAs — Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, and Devinder Kumar — were disqualified for not following the Congress whip to vote in favour of the cut motion and the budget in the Vidhan Sabha.

All six joined the BJP and have now been fielded from their respective constituencies for the bypolls to the Assembly seats that will be held on June 1 along with the Lok Sabha polls for four seats.

The three Independent MLAs – Hoshyar Singh, Ashish Sharma, and K L Thakur — too resigned from Vidhan Sabha on March 22 and joined the BJP. Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, however, is yet to accept their resignations.