Pilot,18 rebels move High Court against Speaker’s notice; hearing today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 16

The Rajasthan Congress crisis today took a legal turn with 18 rebel MLAs led by Sachin Pilot moving the state High Court, which will on Friday hear their petitions challenging the disqualification notices issued to them by Assembly Speaker CP Joshi.

The dissident camp, represented in the HC by ace lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, earlier this morning sought an urgent hearing on the matter challenging the constitutional validity of the notices issued under the anti-defection law.

The HC agreed to list the issue before a Division Bench at 7.30 pm today, but later deferred the same until 1 pm on Friday.

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The Pilot group has argued that the Speaker cannot invoke the anti-defection law provisions in the case as the MLAs had neither defected nor indulged in anti-party activities and hence they had not “voluntarily given up the party membership” as maintained by the Congress. The rebels’ plea is that absence from the two CLP meetings Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had called did not constitute defiance of the party whip and a whip was issued only for proceedings on the floor of the House and not otherwise. Their petitions say the Speaker showed “undue haste” in issuing disqualification notices under the Tenth Schedule and the notices were “bad in law”.

The Congress is being represented in the matter by lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, with political observers citing the choice of legal representatives of the two sides as evidence enough of which way the matters were moving.

The Congress, however, kept the doors ajar for Pilot even today, with top sources saying the leadership had asked CM Gehlot to go soft on the rebel leader. Gehlot had yesterday publicly lashed out at Pilot, accusing him of “indulging in horse-trading of MLAs and conspiring to topple the Congress government in the state”.

Tenth Schedule and the notices were “bad in law”.

The Congress is being represented in the matter by lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, with political observers citing the choice of legal representatives of the two sides as evidence enough of which way the matters were moving.

The Congress, however, kept the doors ajar for Pilot even today, with top sources saying the leadership had asked CM Gehlot to go soft on the rebel leader.

Gehlot had yesterday publicly lashed out at Pilot, accusing him of “indulging in horse-trading of MLAs and conspiring to topple the Congress government in the state”. Gehlot also said Pilot had got it too easy in life unlike veterans like himself who had to slog for everything. Meanwhile, a Congress source said Pilot had reached out to a senior party leader today and set certain conditions for talks. The party is learnt to have told him that he should return unconditionally and the leadership would let bygones be bygones. Pilot, it is learnt, also sought legal advice from Congress man Abhishek Singhvi today. Singhvi declined as he was advising the Congress.

A section in the Congress however believes that Pilot has gone too far to return, and is likely to soon reveal his future plans. Both sides are geared for a prolonged legal battle which is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi has, meanwhile, given time until Friday to rebel MLAs to respond to disqualification notices.