Rajasthan HC Asks Speaker For Status Quo On Rebel Congress MLAs, Accepts Plea To Make Centre A Party In The Matter

The Rajasthan High Court on Friday (24 July) ordered a status quo with regard to disqualification notices issued to the 19 rebel Congress MLAs, even as it accepted a plea filed by MLA Prithviraj Meena, one of the petitioners, to make the Centre a party to the ongoing case.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other party MLAs moved the High Court following the disqualification notices to them by Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. The Speaker has now been barred, for now, to act on the 14 July notices.

The HC also accepted an application to make the central government a party in this matter.

In his plea filed on Wednesday (22 July), Meena said: "It is humbly prayed that the Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, (Dept of Legal Affairs) be made a party/respondent to the present writ petition in the interest of justice and law.

The High Court said that the petition is maintainable, but the matter is under the consideration of the Supreme Court.

The Speakers was first asked to defer action in the matter by three days last week, when the High Court began hearing the case in which the petitioner MLAs challenged Para 2(1)(a) of the Schedule X of the Constitution.

The Pilot camp got another three-day breather on Tuesday from the High Court after it finished hearing the arguments and reserved the judgment for 24 July.

The rebels had argued that no whip can be in issued when the Assembly is not in session and maintained that they had no plans to quit the ruling Congress but wanted a change in its Rajasthan leadership.

Meanwhile, Speaker Joshi on Wednesday filed a CLP in the Supreme Court, and its hearing is scheduled on Monday (27 July).

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)