Rajasthan Speaker to move SC over HC 'direction', says trying to avert constitutional crisis

Jaipur/New Delhi: The Rajasthan Assembly Speaker on Wednesday said he will move the Supreme Court, a day after receiving a direction from the high court to defer action on the notices sent to dissident Congress MLAs.

Speaker C P Joshi told reporters that he is filing a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court to avoid a constitutional crisis.

The division bench Tuesday deferred its order till Friday on a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, challenging the disqualification notices sent to them.

It requested the Speaker also to put his next move on hold till then and said we direct accordingly.

"I have asked my lawyer to file an SLP in the Supreme Court on why we are moving towards a constitutional crisis, the Speaker said at a press conference.

Joshi said circumventing the defined roles of an institution is a threat to parliamentary democracy.

So, before we move towards a constitutional crisis, I thought it is appropriate that a petition be filed in the Supreme Court," he added.

"I hope that the court will take cognisance of the petition despite the coronavirus crisis, so that it can be ensured that an authority can discharge its role under the constitutional system," he said.

Joshi said only show-cause notices were issued to the MLAs and no decision had been taken.

The Speaker's counsel had twice before agreed to the court's request to extend the deadline for receiving replies from the MLAs to the show cause notices.

On Tuesday, the court of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta made a similar request when the proceedings did not get over by the end of the day and were put off till Friday.

The problem arose when the Speaker's office received the court order, suggesting it was a direction.

Earlier, the Speaker's office issued a press release saying that in view of the request by the high court, he has decided to defer his action on the notices till July 24.

In their order, the judges said they further request the Hon'ble Speaker, who has been pleased to extend the period for filing reply by writ petitioners till 5.30 pm as of today i.e. 21.07.2020, to extend the said period till the delivery of orders by this Court on 24/07/2020 and we direct accordingly.

When contacted, a counsel for the Speaker said the objection was over the word direct.

The Speaker had been extending on request. Why then was this word direct' there? This was discussed late last night and a decision was taken to file an SLP, the counsel told PTI.

The Speaker's had issued notices to Pilot and the other MLAs on July 14 on the basis of a complaint from their party that they had skipped two meetings of the Congress Legislature Party, defying a whip.

The notices gave the MLAs three days to submit their reply on why they should not be disqualified from the assembly.

But the dissident leaders moved the Rajasthan High Court on July 16, challenging the notices.