Current 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha completed four years of its tenure. Pertinent that the first meeting (session) of the present State Legislative Assembly was summoned with effect from 4 Nov 2019. Although the normal tenure of the current 14th Haryana Assembly is till 3 November 2024 however it can be prematurely dissolved before that date. The State Cabinet under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister is competent enough to take a call on early dissolution of State Assembly after which the decision requires formal approval of the State Governor which usually is a foregone conclusion. Be that as it may, Hemant further said that after the completion of the four year tenure of present 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha, if any Assembly Constituency (seat) becomes vacant or is declared vacant
due to death, resignation or disqualification etc. of an incumbent/sitting MLA of current 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha, then no bye-election would be conducted on that vacant assembly seat by the Election Commission of India because after today 3 Nov 2023, the remaining tenure of such erstwhile MLA would be les than one year and aa per Section 151 A of Representation of the People Act, 1951 by-election is not conducted for such vacant seat on which the remaining tenure of the erstwhile MLA is less than one year.
Divulging aforesaid information, Hemant Kumar, an expert and Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court told that according to Article 172 (1) of the Constitution of India every Legislative Assembly of every State, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer & the expiration of the said period of five years shall operate as dissolution of the Assembly. He further said that during the last year of the tenure of a Legislative Assembly, if a person who is not a member of the current Legislative Assembly is appointed as Chief Minister or Minister in the State Council of Ministers, then in that situation, it is indispensable to conduct a bye-election on any duly declared vacant Assembly seat in the State provided that the tenure of the Assembly at that relevant point of time is more than 6 months remaining. As per Constitution of India, any non-MLA (legislator) can hold the post of Chief Minister or Minister for a maximum period of 6 months after which he must be elected as an MLA to continue in office. Notably, there have been 3 by-elections in the current 14th Haryana Assembly during the last 3 years and coincidentally, all three were held in the month of November..Firstly, as a result of the death of then Congress MLA Krishan Hooda from Baroda assembly seat of Sonipat district in April, 2020, bye-election was held in November, 2020 in which Induraj Narwal of Congress emerged victorious and was elected as MLA. In Jan, 2021 due to the resignation of INLD›s Abhay Singh Chautala, the then elected MLA from Ellenabad constituency of Sirsa Bypoll was conducted there in Nov, 2021 in which Abhay Chautala retained the seat after getting re-elected as MLA.
