The Rajasthan High Court will hear a PIL on Tuesday, seeking to stop salary and allowances of MLAs staying in hotels amidst the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan.
The petition by Vivek Singh Jadoun states that since the MLAs are not going to their constituencies, they shouldn›t be given a salary for legislative work. Speaker C.P. Joshi and Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi also moved petitions in the top court before this.
Joshi had moved SC against the 24 July Rajasthan HC order which asked Assembly Speaker to defer disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Speaker C.P. Joshi had moved the Supreme Court against Rajasthan HC›s order to stay disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs.
On July 27, the SC allowed Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi to withdraw his petition against the Rajasthan HC’s order which postponed disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs.
Appearing for the Speaker, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal informed the Justice Arun Mishra-led bench that the Rajasthan HC had passed a fresh order on July 24, which had raised several other issues including the interpretation of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. In view of a detailed 32-page order by the High Court, the Speaker is likely to weigh his legal options on what to do next.
On July 24, the Rajasthan HC had ordered status quo to be maintained in the disqualification case against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs, which means that no action can be taken against Sachin Pilot and others for now since Speaker CP Joshi can›t act on disqualification notices issued on July 14. The High Court also agreed to Pilot camp MLA Prithviraj Meena›s request to include the Centre as a party to the case, since the Tenth Schedule’s constitutional validity had been challenged and no order could possibly be passed without hearing the Centre.