The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra will hear on Thursday the appeal filed by Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi against the Rajasthan High Court order which asked him to postpone disqualification proceedings against former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs till 24 July.The court will also hear Sachin Pilot and other rebel MLAs, since they have filed caveat petitions and no orders can be passed without hearing them.
In his petition, the Speaker has said that HC order “completely destroys the delicate balance envisaged by the Constitution between the Legislature and the Judiciary” and called the HC order “illegal, perverse, and in derogation of the powers of the Speaker”. On Tuesday, the Rajasthan High Court had reserved its order on a petition filed by former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs challenging the disqualification proceedings initiated by the Speaker against them. The High Court had requested the Speaker to defer action on disqualification notices till Friday.
The Rajasthan High Court was hearing a petition filed by Pilot and 18 Congress rebel MLAs against the disqualification notice issued by 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 voluntarily give up the membership of Indian National Congress.” The petition junked the allegations as baseless and said that petitioners had no intention to voluntarily give up membership of the Congress party.
Petitioners claim that mere expression of disagreement with certain policies or decisions taken by some members of the party can’t be held tantamount to acting against interests of the party or the continuation of the state government. The petition also highlights that even if a person is expelled from a political party, he/she continues to be a member of the said political party for all practical purposes under Explanation (a) to Para (2) of the 10th Schedule.