Rajasthan

uty. “High command knows this. He will tell his grievances to the three-member committee formed by the party,” Gehlot said, referring to the panel formed to look into the issues raised by the 42-year-old Pilot and those who stood by him.

It was not immediately clear whether Pilot will be given a responsibility at the central level. Congress insiders have ruled out that he will be reinstated as the party’s Rajasthan chief, a post the Congress filled immediately after his sacking last month. Leaders in the know have said former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will take a final call.

Gehlot also lauded the legislators who supported him and were kept together for a long period — first at a hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur and then at a Jaisalmer resort. “How can we forget such MLAS? They trusted me and the party high command, and agreed to stay together in hotels for long time. I told them they have created history and I will be their guardian till my last breath,” he said.

He reiterated his charge that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to topple his government and that the opposition party tried to engineer defections in the Congress but failed. Gehlot however, evaded a question on him calling Pilot “nikamma”, or “good for nothing”.

At a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Jaisalmer at night, some legislators felt the return of “the rebel MLAS, who are making statements against the CM and the government, is not acceptable”, according to a Congress leader familiar with the developments . “If they continue doing the same, there will be protest,” said the MLAS loyal to Gehlot, according to the leader.

Gehlot and senior Congress MLAS had to pacify those who voiced their reservations.

Another leader said there was a unanimous demand that none of the dissidents should be given any post in the government or organisation. After that, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who was present at the meeting, said the dissident MLAS returned without any condition.

Welcomed by his supporters at the airport, Pilot returned to Jaipur earlier in the evening with the 18 rebel Congress legislators. “I have not demanded any post from the party,” Pilot said, a day after his meeting with Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra that appeared to have broken the ice.

There should not be any vendetta politics against MLAS who raised their grievances against the Congress government, Pilot told reporters at his Jaipur residence. “I am happy that the party leadership heard our issue — be it related to functioning, development, workers participation, selfrespect etc. The AICC (All India Congress Committee) has constituted a committee, which in a time-bound manner, will address the issues,” he said.

“...I have no personal issues with anyone. I have been the state party chief for six-and-a-half years, of which five years were of struggle. And the participation of those who worked hard during this time in the government is my responsibility,” he said.

On Monday night, Pilot told the media in Delhi that his side “raised issues of principle before the Congress leadership”. He asserted that he was not after any post and that the party can take back any position given to him.

“While a lot of unparliamentarily words were used, I have chosen to maintain the dignity of the discourse,” Pilot told HT on Monday.

The crisis in Rajasthan surfaced after Pilot received a notice from the special operations group of the Rajasthan Police on July 10, triggering a revolt that has been in the offing for months. It asked him to record his statement regarding an alleged attempt to topple the Congress government.

Though the Congress said a similar notice was sent to Gehlot, leaders close to Pilot called it a “joke”; for it is the chief minister who is in charge of the home department that oversees the police force. Pilot’s camp said the notice was yet another move to “humiliate” him and “undermine” his authority.

The Congress removed Pilot as the deputy chief minister and state Congress president on July 14, and two of his supporters were suspended from the party.

Days before that, Pilot, backed by three independents alongside the 18 Congress MLAS, left the state. They have camped at various places in the National Capital Region — from Faridabad to Manesar.

With Pilot’s return, the Congress will have 107 MLAS in the 200-member assembly, where the simple majority is 101. The Congress also has the support of all 13 independents, with the three from the Pilot camp meeting Gehlot on Tuesday and pledging their support. Five MLAS from other parties, too, support the Congress government. The BJP and its ally Rashtriya Loktrantrik Party have 75 seats.

Jaipur-based political commentator Avadhesh Akodia, however, said the truce cannot be considered an end to the turmoil. “What we saw today is just a break; there could be more to come. Gehlot and the MLAS who were in hotels for a month wouldn’t agree to bringing the ‘rebels’ back in the positions they had,” he said.

The BJP took a fresh dig at the Congress. “The party that can’t have its house in order is blaming us for the mess,” BJP state president Satish Poonia said. right in coparcenary is by birth, it is not necessary that father coparcener should be living as on September 9, 2005.” It further made the law applicable to even daughters born prior to the commencement of the Act. By stating so, the Court upheld a 2018 ruling of the apex court in Danamma v Amar which extended benefit to a daughter whose father expired prior to 2005.

Speaking to HT, senior advocate R Venkatramani, who assisted the court as amicus curiae in this matter, said, “This judgment has put the law on a proper footing . But what happens in those cases where the son of the coparcener father has alienated or sold or transferred the rights in the property long time ago. He cannot be asked to pay to his sister the share in that property. To avoid chaos, there cannot be reopening of an old partition deed or settlement.”

The central government opposed the idea of giving retrospective operation to the 2005 law since a coparcener in Hindu family law has a right to seek partition. For this reason, the law fixed a cut-off date of December 20, 2004, to avoid reopening of any settlement or partition decree prior to this date.

The court accepted the December 20, 2004, date as cut-off but emphasised that if a daughter seeks partition or a share, the same cannot be denied on the basis of an oral family settlement but on a final decree of a court or a registered family settlement. If oral settlement is to be presented, the bench held, it has to be supported “by public documents.”

Advocate Sridhar Potaraju, one of the lawyers who argued in this case said: “The judgment is a reassertion of the constitutional value of equality to women in personal law without any preconditions. The judgment factors all aspects.”

But there is a flip side too, he added. “Daughters as coparceners include married daughters. Coparcenary right is an undefined liability and any liability of father including family debt will be extended to daughters as well. It remains to be seen if the husband of the married daughter will be open to bear this burden.”

Prior to the 2005 Act, several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, introduced state amendments in the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 extending equal rights to daughters in Hindu Mitakshara coparcenary property.