Shimla, Jan 8 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla has returned to the state government a Bill that bars legislators disqualified under the anti-defection law from drawing pensions and sought clarifications on several counts.

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was passed on September 4 last year. It prevents the members of the House disqualified under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution -- anti-defection law -- from drawing pensions.

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The Bill affects six former Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by the Speaker for defying the whip and abstaining from the House during discussions on cut motions and passing of the Budget in February last year.

Shukla has sent back the bill to the state government with some objections on which clarifications have been sought, an official said.

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According to sources, there are apprehensions that the bill cannot be implemented with retrospective effect.

The opposition BJP had objected to the Bill, stating that it smacks of "political revenge" and cannot be implemented with retrospective effect. The Congress leaders had maintained that the six MLAs had betrayed the party and that the Bill was aimed at strengthening the democratic values and deterring legislators from defection.

The six former MLAs who will be impacted due to the Bill are Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Rajinder Rana, Devinder Kumar Bhutto, Chetanya Sharma and Ravi Thakur. All of them had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan during the Rajya Sabha elections held in February.

All six had contested the bypolls on BJP tickets earlier this year. While Sudhir Sharma and Lakhanpal got re-elected, the other four lost.

Himachal Pradesh is the first state in the country to pass such a bill under which, "A person shall not be entitled to pension under the Act, if he has been disqualified at any point of time under the tenth schedule of the Constitution".

The statement of object and reasons of the Bill passed by voice vote said it was necessitated as there was no provision in the 1971 Act to discourage the defection of members, protect the mandate given by the people, preserve democratic values and deterrence towards "constitutional sin".

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