HC makes Centre a party in rebel MLAS’ petition
nNEW DELHI: The Rajasthan high court on Friday allowed the application filed by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 dissident Congress MLAS asking the court to include the Union government as a party to the case filed by them challenging speaker CP Joshi’s disqualification notice of July 14.
In their application moved through counsel S Hariharan and Divyesh Maheshwari, the rebel camp said the Union government should be included as a party because the validity of constitutional provisions (10th schedule) are under challenge. In their petition, the Pilot camp made the speaker and secretary of Rajasthan assembly as respondents.
The original version of the petition challenged only the speaker’s notice issued to them. However, the petition was amended later to include an additional prayer challenging paragraph 2(1)(a) of tenth schedule of the Constitution. Para 2(1)(a) provides for disqualification of lawmakers over voluntarily giving up party membership.
Since, the Constitutional provision was challenged, it became imperative to hear the central government due to which the application was moved on Thursday to add the Centre as party.
The speaker cannot decide on disqualification notices against Pilot and the other lawmakers for the time being.
If the Supreme Court stays the high court order, the speaker can act.
The Supreme Court is slated to take up the matter for hearing on Monday on the larger legal question of the high court’s jurisdiction to interfere with the speaker’s proceedings.
If the Supreme Court stays the high court order, then the speaker can proceed with the disqualification proceedings. But such relief is unlikely because the Supreme Court declined the stay it when the matter was heard on Thursday.
If the Supreme Court does not stay the matter, then the speaker cannot act until the high court pronounces its verdict one way or the other. This will take a while since the high court has admitted the matter for the hearing, which means the case is fit for a very lengthy proceedings and is likely to come up only after some time.
The high court will examine the Constitutional validity of clause 2(1)(a) of the Constitution’s Tenth Schedule that contains provisions related to the disqualification of lawmakers for defection. Clause 2(1)(a) is about voluntarily giving up membership of a political party on whose ticket a lawmaker is elected on.
The Pilot camp has contended that merely voicing opinion against party leadership does not amount to “voluntarily giving up membership” and clause 2(1)(a), to the extent it prohibits the expression of opinion, violates the basic structure of the Constitution and the freedom of speech under Article 19. The high court will also decide the validity of the speaker’s notices issued on July 14. In deciding these questions, it has framed 12 issues that it will consider.
The options are limited. The speaker can challenge Friday’s order before the Supreme Court by way of a fresh appeal. But since the speaker earlier challenged the July 21 high court order, which had also deferred his action, the subject matter of both appeals will be the same.
In such a scenario, the new appeal is also likely to be tagged along with the pending appeal and heard together which means it might not yield any desired result. Therefore, the matter in all likelihood would be rendered infructuous for the speaker.
It is advantage Pilot camp. The high court order of status quo means the speaker cannot disqualify the rebel lawmakers for now. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will, therefore, have to ensure his 101 MLAS remain with him. This is because the full strength of the Rajasthan assembly—200—will vote in the event of a trust vote.
Gehlot currently has a waferthin majority. If all the members vote, a change in the stance of one or two MLAS can bring down the government. Had either the high court or the Supreme Court allowed action on the disqualification pleas, the speaker might have proceeded with the disqualifications. This would have brought down the assembly strength to 181 and made it easier for Gehlot to secure a victory in the floor test.