Search on for MLA Sharma, SOG seeks hotel CCTV footage
courts cannot interfere with the disqualification proceedings until the speaker makes a decision. It is settled by the judgment of this court in the Kihoto Hollohan case of 1992, Sibal argued.
In the case, a five-judge Constitution bench held judicial review should not cover any stage prior to the making of a decision by the speaker/chairman. No interference would be permissible at an interlocutory stage, the Kihoto Hollohan judgment said.
Joshi, therefore, sought a stay on the proceedings before the high court. “We are trying to find out whether the procedure adopted [by speaker] is correct or not. Can the voice of dissent be shut down like this in a democracy?” Justice Mishra said. The SC declined to stay high court proceedings. Consequently, Joshi’s plea before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on high court proceedings was rendered infructuous since it passed an order on July 24.
Admitting Pilot’s plea, the high court asked Joshi to defer action on the notices served until it decides the case.
The Supreme Court will hear the larger issue concerning whether courts can interfere with a speaker’s exercise of disqualification powers.
“We will hear only on the question of jurisdiction of court to interfere with the speaker’s proceedings. We will not go into whether speaker acted mala fide or bona fide. We cannot go into that,” justice Mishra remarked during the July 23 hearing.
JAIPUR: In their search for Sachin Pilot-loyalist MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, accused of attempting to topple the Congress government in Rajasthan, the police’s Special Operation Group (Sog)has sought CCTV footage and guest list from a Manesar hotel to trace him. The SOG has registered an FIR against Sharma, Gajendra Singh and one Sanjay Jain on the basis of a complaint by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi who had submitted audio clips as evidence. “We have asked for CCTV footage and details of guests list,” a senior SOG official said on Saturday. When the SOG was sent to a hotel in Haryana’s Manesar in Gurgaon to seek the dissident MLA’S version in connection with the FIR, the team was told at the reception that the MLA was not there, and they returned, the unit’s Additional Director General Ashok Rathore had said. The Congress had demanded the arrest of Union minister Shekhawat, alleging that he is heard in one of the clips. Both Shekhawat and Sharma have rejected the allegations. Jain, the third man in the clips has been held.