Jaipur: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to Rajasthan assembly speaker Dr CP Joshi over a plea challenging the merger of six BSP MLAs with the Congress party in Rajasthan.
The bench of justices S Abdul Nazeer and KM Joseph heard the matter on two separate pleas filed by the BSP and BJP MLA Madan Dilawar and issued notice to the speaker and others seeking their response.
The pleas were filed in the Supreme Court against a Rajasthan high court judgement and an order passed by the assembly speaker.
The high court had ruled in August 2020 that the order passed by assembly speaker Dr Joshi in September 2019 was an administrative and not an order adjudicating the claim of merger.
The BSP and BJP MLA Madan Dilawar had filed an SLP in the Supreme Court contending that the approval of the merger by the speaker was done in an arbitrary manner and the action was legally impermissible.
The pleas sought to set aside the high court order.
The BSP said in its petition that it had filed a petition in the Rajasthan high court last year challenging the merger but the high court had dismissed the petition and asked the BSP to file a plea before the speaker. The speaker upheld his approval of the merger and after that the BSP filed a plea in the Supreme Court.
On September 16, 2019, the six BSP MLAs had given an application to the speaker requesting to join the Congress party.
On March 16, 2020, BJP MLA Madan Dilawar had filed a petition before the speaker against the merger but the speaker dismissed the petition. In July 2020, Dilawar and the BSP approached the high court challenging the merger of the BSP with the Congress. After the high court order on August 24, 2020 dismissing the BSP and Dilawar’s petition, they approached the supreme court.
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