After Speaker C.P. Joshi, Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi has moved the Supreme Court against the 24 July Rajasthan High Court order which asked the Assembly Speaker to defer disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs.
The plea states, “The HC order is ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal and in the teeth of the law laid down by this court in 1992 verdict in the case of Kihoto Hollohan.”
Two days ago, Rajasthan Speaker Joshi had moved the SC against Rajasthan HC’s order to stay disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs. In his petition, the Rajasthan Speaker had stated that the matter of whether non-attendance of meeting and criticism of the original party constitute grounds for disqualification or not is for the sole consideration of the Speaker, who is yet to decide on particular facts and circumstances of each petitioner, which will be done on a case-to-case basis. The petition had said: “Whether the conduct of the respondent-MLAs tantamount to democratic dissent or floor crossing, and not defection, is a question of fact that only the Speaker as the ‘persona designata’ under the anti-defection law can decide.”
It also said that it was inadvisable for the High Court to embark upon on such a fact-finding expedition in its writ jurisdiction. The plea also urged SC to ensure that the HC does not cross the “Lakshman Rekha” drawn by the SC in the Kihoto Hollohan case, which decisively barred judicial interference in pending disqualification proceedings.
On 27 July, the SC had allowed Rajasthan Assembly Speaker 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 interpretation of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. In view of a detailed 32-page order by the HC, the Speaker is likely to weigh his legal options on what he will do next.
On 24 July, the Rajasthan High Court had ordered status quo to be maintained in the disqualification case against Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs, which meant no action can be taken against the former Rajasthan Deputy CM and other rebel Congress leaders for now since Speaker Joshi can›t act on disqualification notices issued on 14 July.
The HC also agreed to Pilot camp MLA Prithviraj Meena›s request to include Centre as a party to the case, since the Tenth Schedule’s constitutional validity was under challenge and no order could possibly be passed without hearing the Centre. The HC had pointed out 13 questions which will have to be decided in the case now.
The Rajasthan High Court also heard a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs against the disqualification notice issued by the Assembly Speaker to disqualify them as MLAs. The petition stated: “None of the petitioners herein have either by express conduct or implied conduct, indicated to the members of their constituencies and/or the public at large of their intention to leave or voluntary give up the membership of Indian National Congress.” The petition junked the allegations as baseless and said that the petitioners had no intention to voluntarily give up membership of the Congress.