Pilot, 18 MLAS move HC against disqualification

TURMOIL INTENSIFIES Speaker cannot invoke anti-defection law for disagreement outside House, says plea; it’ll be heard at 1pm today

JAIPUR:FORMER Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and his team of 18 lawmakers on Thursday approached the Rajasthan high court’s Jaipur bench to seek cancellation of the disqualification notice served on them by assembly speaker CP Joshi, insisting that the anti-defection law could not be invoked against them for disagreeing outside the House with some government decisions and policies.

The petition will be heard on Friday by a two-member division bench of the high court at 1pm.

Pilot’s decision to move the Rajasthan high court is seen by Congress leaders as a signal that he intends to pursue his battle with chief minister Ashok Gehlot, and underlines his growing distance with the party that removed him on Tuesday as the head of its state unit and as deputy CM of Rajasthan.

The hearing was deferred after Pilot’s camp , represented by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, filed an amended petition in the evening, incorporating additional grounds of challenge to its earlier plea filed before a single-judge bench.

If the Pilot camp is disqualified, it would reduce the strength of the assembly and place Gehlot on a stronger footing in a House with reduced strength until elections are held to fill their seats. The battle in the court is important from the point of view of the numerical strength in the assembly, which will matter in the event of a no-confidence motion.

The joint petition was taken up by the high court’s justice Satish Sharma on Thursday afternoon, when Salve sought time to amend the petition to broaden its scope.

The amended plea challenged the Constitutional validity of a key provision in the 10th Schedule of the Constitution: Clause 2(1)(a). This states that a lawmaker will be liable for disqualification on the ground of defection if he voluntarily gives up membership of the political party on whose ticket he was elected.

The petition said that clause 2(1)(a) is very wide, since previous judgments have even construed the expression of opinion or views by lawmakers against party leadership as conduct falling within its contours. It argued, that the clause violates freedom of speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The Congress maintained that the action of the speaker was justified. “Everyone needs to follow the party’s whip. The speaker has full rights to send notices to MLAS,” state transport minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said. Differences between the CM and his former deputy were seen to be simmering for months, and the acrimony became public in the last two days after Pilot was sacked from his party positions. On Wednesday, Gehlot said Pilot was part of a conspiracy to topple the government

and that “traits such as looking good and speaking fluent English” did not matter in public life. Pilot, earlier in the day, said Gehlot humiliated him and kept him out of key decisions.

The numbers still remain slightly tenuous for Gehlot. He appears to have the support of 101 members — same as the majority mark in the 200-member state assembly (though this does not include speaker CP Joshi). Pilot has 18 other Congress MLAS and three independents in his camp. The BJP and its ally Rashtriya Loktrantrik Party have 75 seats. One Congress MLA, Bhanwarlal Meghwal, is indisposed, though he is said to be close to Pilot.

Pilot’s primary argument was that his missing two meetings of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) did not amount to defection. According to 10th Schedule, the anti-defection provisions kick in if a member voluntarily gives up membership of the political party or votes contrary to the party’s direction in the assembly.