Pilot camp gets a breather till Tuesday as HC defers hearing

JAIPUR: In a breather to former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and his band of 18 Congress MLAs, speaker CP Joshi on Friday assured the Rajasthan high court that he would not act on the show-cause notices issued to them under the anti-defection law till Tuesday evening.
The deadline given to the legislators to respond on the speaker’s notices, however, ended at 1 pm on Friday. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta deferred hearing in the matter until Monday morning when senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the speaker, would resume his arguments to counter the Pilot camp’s plea that the notices were against the Constitution and issued in haste.
It was argued that the speaker enjoyed autonomous powers. The petition challenging the show-cause notices was premature and the judiciary should not interfere till an order on the notices was passed.
The 19 legislators who have challenged the leadership of Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot approached the court contesting that the speaker cannot serve them defection notices for failing to attend Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, as acts done outside the House were not violation of the anti-defection law. Disagreeing with ‘dictatorial functioning’ of the CM was freedom of expression and not defection, the court was told.
Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the Pilot camp, said party whips were not applicable for meetings held at homes and hotels but to proceedings within the House when the Assembly is in session.