The Supreme Court will today hear a plea filed by the Rajasthan speaker against a high court order directing him to put on hold disqualification proceedings against Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs. Seeking an interim stay on the high court order, the speaker's petition said it was the top court's duty to ensure that all constitutional authorities act within the lakshman rekha (boundaries) drawn for each one of them. A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari will hear the plea today.
Speaker C.P. Joshi, in a press conference, had said (referring to the high court order) that the country was heading towards a constitutional crisis. "The speaker post is a constitutional authority, with a well-defined role. Courts cannot intervene in the speaker's authority [of legislative disqualification]. In every judgment, be it Uttarakhand or Manipur, it was well-defined that speaker has the authority to serve disqualification notices. Courts have the authority to undertake judicial reviews [of the said disqualification]. What we have served is only a show-cause notice. Unfortunately, there is an attempt to circumvent the judiciary in this case."
Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs got another reprieve on Tuesday with the Rajasthan High Court putting off until Friday its order on their petitions against disqualification; the speaker also agreed to defer any action till then. The division bench completed the hearing of arguments and said it will pronounce its order on Friday, requesting the speaker too to extend his deadline for accepting the MLAs' replies to the notices.
The notices had followed a Congress complaint that the 19 MLAs should be disqualified from the assembly for defying a party whip. The dissident MLAs, including Sachin Pilot, had challenged the disqualification notices, moving court last Friday. The division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Prakash Gupta also heard the case on Monday and Tuesday. The Congress had moved for action against Pilot and the other dissidents under paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
Amid the tussle for power in Rajasthan, the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at the premises of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's brother as part of nationwide searches over an alleged fertiliser scam. The Congress linked the raids targeting Agrasain Gehlot to the alleged attempt by the BJP to topple its government in Rajasthan.
"Prime Minister Modi has created a 'raid raj' in the country but we are not going to be scared," party leader Randeep Surjewala said.
Gehlot has written directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging the involvement of his BJP in horse-trading of MLAs in the state and naming Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. "I am not aware to what extent this is in your knowledge or if you are being misled," he said in the letter released to the media on Wednesday. "History will not forgive those who participate in this deed."
-Inputs from PTI
