SC to hear plea against merger of six BSP MLAs with Rajasthan Congress on 24 August

The Supreme Court will hear BJP MLA Madan Dilawar’s plea on Aug 24 against merger of six BSP MLAs of Rajasthan Assembly with Congress. The top court was today informed that the Rajasthan high court has reserved its order with regard to the disqualification of the six BSP lawmakers.

 During the hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Fernandes appearing for the Speaker stated that the dictation of order by the Rajasthan high court had begun on Friday but it could not be completed due to paucity of time. The HC had indicated that matter will be disposed of one way or the other, Fernandes added.

BJP MLA Madan Dilawar’s petition challenges the decision of the Rajasthan High Court where it refused to stay Rajasthan Speaker’s order which allowed six BSP MLAs to merge with congress party in Rajasthan Assembly.

Madan Dilawar’s petition says “Bahujan Samaj Party has not merged with Indian National Congress. Both remain to be separate political parties at the National Level as well as State level. Therefore, these MLAs cannot drive any benefit. The Speaker had no jurisdiction to record a finding of socalled merger without giving a notice to the Bahujan Samaj Party and without holding an enquiry as to whether the Bahujan Samaj Party had actually merged in the Congress or not. The Speaker did not hold any proper enquiry to find out whether any actual merger of the BSP in the Congress has taken place or not.”

On 14 August the Rajasthan High Court had reserved its verdict on the petitions filed by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar, along with BSP’s petition against merger of Six BSP MLAs with Congress party. On August 6, the Rajasthan High Court had issued notices to six BSP MLAs on petitions filed by BSP and BJP MLA. Plea by BJP legislator Madan Dilawar sought to cancel merger of 6 BSP MLAs with Congress-led government in the state. Rajasthan High Court had ruled: “Notices have to be published in local newspapers in Barmer and Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer district officials have to ensure notices reach MLAs lodged in a resort.” On 11th August, a single-judge bench of Rajasthan HC will decide if the merger of these 6 BSP MLAs with Congress was unconstitutional or not.

BSP and BJP legislators had approached the division bench challenging the order of a single judge bench that refused to stay the membership of the 6 BSP turncoats. The single-judge bench had issued notices to the Speaker, Secretary of the Assembly and 6 MLAs on 30th July, asking them to submit replies by 11th August.