Rajasthan Chief Whip Approaches Supreme Court Against Stay On MLA Disqualification

Rajasthan Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi today moved the Supreme Court against the Rajasthan High Court's order, which directs Assembly Speaker CP Joshi to defer disqualification of sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel MLAs.

The Chief Whip moved the top court two days after the Speaker also filed an appeal against the High Court's July 24 order.

Mahesh Joshi's plea contends the High Court's order is "unconstitutional, illegal" and against its "1992 verdict in the case of Kihoto Hollohon", which holds that the Speaker has the authority to decide the disqualification proceedings and judicial intervention in the process is "not permissible".

Two days ago, CP Joshi had also moved the top court stating that the High Court's order was a "direct intrusion" into the domain exclusively reserved for the Speaker under Article 212 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. The plea claimed the order interferes with the "proceedings of the House".

The plea, settled by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, has also sought stay on further proceedings in the matter pending before the High Court.

The Rajasthan High Court passed the stay order on a plea filed by Sachin Pilot and his rebel MLAs after the Congress invoked the anti-defection law to question their conduct and asked the Speaker to disqualify them.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's requests to convene the assembly so he could prove majority were rejected thrice by Governor Kalraj Mishra before he accepted a date that was exactly 21 days from when the first request was made.

Mr Mishra had been holding off on convening the assembly insisting that the government should give a 21-day notice.

Mr Gehlot, who claims he has the support of 102 MLAs -- one above the majority mark if his rebelling former deputy Sachin Pilot and his 18 MLAs cannot be disqualified -- has not mentioned trust vote in any of his proposals.