New Delhi, July 22
The Rajasthan political crisis reached the Supreme Court on Wednesday with Assembly Speaker CP Joshi challenging the state high court’s order “directing” him to postpone till July 24 the disqualification proceedings against 19 rebel Congress MLAs, including sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.
In his petition, Joshi urged the top court to set aside the high court’s order, contending it was “bad in law” and “a direct affront to the powers of the Legislature and the Speaker envisaged under the Constitution”.
The petition has been listed for hearing on Thursday before a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra at 11 am.
Earlier, senior advocate Kapil Sibal complained to a Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde that there was no system to mention urgent cases directly to the top court. Justice Bobde asked him to approach the court’s Registry.
Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs have challenged before the high court the disqualification notices issued to them by the assembly Speaker.
On Tuesday, the high court said it would deliver its order on July 24 on rebel Congress MLAs’ petition and asked Joshi to defer the disqualification proceedings till then.
Contending that the disqualification process was a part of the assembly proceedings, Joshi said the high court could not have asked him to defer it till Friday, particularly because he had already extended twice the deadline to receive replies of rebel Congress MLAs.
The disqualification proceedings under anti-defection law i.e. paragraph 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution was initiated against the 19 MLAs after the Congress Legislature Party complained to the Speaker that the they had defied a whip to attend two meetings last week.
The rebel MLAs contended that a party whip applied only during assembly session.
