The Rajasthan High Court on Friday directed Assembly Speaker CP Joshi to not take any action against rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot and the 18 dissident MLAs before 5.30 pm on Tuesday, Live Law reported. The court said it would resume hearing on the matter on Monday at 10 am.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta was hearing a plea filed by Pilot and the MLAs that challenged the disqualification notices issued to them by Joshi on Wednesday. The MLAs were initially given time till Friday afternoon to respond to the notices.
Advocate Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of Pilot and the legislators, told the court that raising a voice against the “dictatorship” of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot did not amount to defection. “This is in exercise of freedom of speech of legislators and will not amount to defection,” he said.
Salve added that violating a party whip with respect to acts done outside the legislature did not fall within the ambit of the Tenth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. “Whip is not applicable to meetings at homes and hotels, it only applies to proceedings within the House,” the lawyer told the court. “Also, a party whip applies only when the Assembly is in session.”
The disqualification notices are an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and internal discussions within the Congress, Salve claimed. “Raising disagreements regarding ‘dictatorial functioning’ of chief minister is an internal matter and does not amount to defection,” he argued for the petitioners.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who also appeared for the petitioners, reiterated the submissions of Salve.
Meanwhile, senior advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the respondents, submitted that the the petition challenging the show cause notice issued by the Speaker is “premature”. Singhvi added that the court cannot interfere with the notice issued by the Speaker.
On Thursday, the court referred the case to the division bench when Salve, appearing through video conferencing, said they wanted to challenge the constitutional validity of some provisions.
Earlier in the day, the Congress suspended dissident MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh for allegedly plotting with the Bharatiya Janata Party to overthrow the government in Rajasthan. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala cited an alleged audio conversation, claiming the leaders were in conversation with BJP leader, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
In their petition, the legislators sought to quash the notices, arguing that they had neither given up their membership of the House nor did their failure to attend two Congress meetings makes them liable for disqualification on the ground of defection. It added that an elected representative of the people cannot be removed from his post on the whims and fancies of his party’s leadership.
If the rebel MLAs are disqualified, the majority mark in the 200-member Assembly will drop, making it easier for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to win a floor test. Gehlot needs 101 MLAs to vote for him and he claims that he has the support of 106.
Pilot, who was sacked as the Rajasthan deputy chief minister and from his position as the Congress’ state unit chief on Tuesday, accused the Speaker of acting under the influence of Gehlot. The rebel MLAs said Gehlot had issued the impugned notices with “mala fide intentions”. Gehlot, they said, had ordered an inquiry by the Special Operations Group to threaten them from “raising their voice against the inefficiency of the leadership in the party”.
Joshi issued the notices on Wednesday on a plea filed by Congress Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi, citing the MLAs’ absence from successive Congress Legislature Party meetings and a “conspiracy to bring down the government”.
The notices were an abuse of powers under the Tenth Schedule to “stifle the freedom of speech” of the petitioners and to impose the “majoritarian views of the party” on them, the rebel MLAs said.
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