Rajasthan: Court Can't Step In Just Yet: Rajasthan Speaker On Rebel Congress MLAs

Sachin Pilot is at the heart of Rajasthan crisis for the Congress.

Highlights

Rajasthan High Court hearing rebels' challenge to disqualification notice
Speaker had told court that no action against Team Pilot till Tuesday
Sachin Pilot, other rebels served notice after skipping two key meetings

Jaipur/ New Delhi: The petition by Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel Congress MLAs against disqualification notices cannot be decided by any court before the Speaker takes action, Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued during a hearing at the Rajasthan High Court today. "The rebels don't have grounds to question Speaker until the Speaker gives a decision. The Speaker and the assembly are not in the judicial purview of the court," said Mr Singhvi, representing Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi, who has been taken to court over his notices to disqualify team Pilot for "anti-party activity". The court observed that the Congress, however, cannot force MLAs to attend a party meeting. Last week, the Congress had told the court that no action would be taken against the rebels till Tuesday. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's meeting with Governor Kalraj Mishra on Saturday spurred talk of an assembly session and a possible vote this week.

Here are the latest developments in this big story:

Sachin Pilot and other rebels were served notice for "anti-party activity" after they skipped two meetings of Congress MLAs called by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last week. Rajasthan Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty said during the hearing today that a whip cannot be issued for a party meeting.
Team Pilot, which has been staying in two resorts near Delhi for over a week, has argued in court that such notices cannot be served by the Rajasthan Speaker when the assembly is not in session. The rebels have also contested a constitutional rule that disqualifies MLAs if they "voluntarily" give up the membership of the party that they represent.
"Unprincipled defection is a political sin and against constitutional morality," Mr Singhvi said in court during arguments. He also said the rebels could approach the courts only after the Speaker took action. "The case is much worse, as there are no new grounds of challenge and the petitioners, in an "over-clever" way, have raised the same grounds of challenge that were considered and rejected by the Supreme Court," he argued.
If Team Pilot is disqualified, it will bring down the majority mark in the assembly, to the advantage of the Gehlot government. The Chief Minister has the support of 102 MLAs, just one more than the majority mark in the 200-member assembly. Team Pilot has 19 members, and along with the BJP's 72, can give the government a close fight. Counting independent members and smaller parties, the Congress government is just five ahead of the its potential challengers.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met the Governor on Saturday, shortly after two MLAs of the regional party Bhartiya Tribal Party came out in his support, bolstering his numbers in the close race.
Alongside the court case, the Rajasthan police continues its investigations into alleged deal-making by the rebels to dislodge the Congress government. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claims proof that Sachin Pilot, sacked as his deputy last week, had a role in a BJP-driven plan to bribe Congress MLAs to turn against their government.
Sachin Pilot, served summons on July 10 to answer questions in the investigation ordered by the Chief Minister, openly revolted against his party and shifted base to Delhi.
The Congress leadership, especially Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has reached out to Mr Pilot several times, but efforts in Delhi have contrasted sharply with the Ashok Gehlot government's tough stance, which betrays the party's tightrope act. Mr Pilot has been removed as Deputy Chief Minister, Rajasthan Congress chief and has also been served notice for disqualification.
Last week, the Rajasthan Congress alleged that audio tapes that emerged online confirmed the involvement of at least two rebel MLAs, along with Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat of the BJP, in a conspiracy to dislodge the Gehlot government. The rebels, Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishwendra Singh, have been suspended. The team of the Rajasthan police, which went to the Haryana resorts in search of the MLAs, has so far drawn a blank. The police say they want to record voice samples of the MLAs to establish whether they were the men heard in the audio of "horse-trading".
On Friday evening, the team of the Rajasthan police Special Operations Group landed at ITC Bharat Grand in Manesar near Delhi, and was stopped by a large number of police in the BJP-ruled Haryana. When they were finally allowed in, they did not find team Pilot. The Rajasthan police went to the second resort, Best Western, late last night, but the gates did not open and they left after 20 minutes.