Rajasthan Speaker in SC again, against HC’s stay order

New Delhi: Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Speaker has moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Rajasthan High Court’s order directing the Speaker to maintain “status quo” on disqualification of Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs.

Rajasthan Legislative Assembly Speaker CP Joshi in his petition before the Apex Court has challenged the July 24, order of the Rajasthan High Court, where the Court while admitting the plea of Congress MLAs, ordered a status quo before the Speaker even adjudicated the disqualification proceedings before him. Restraining the Speaker from performing his constitutional duties under the Tenth Schedule is a direct intrusion by the High Court into the domain exclusively reserved for the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

According to the petitioner, High Court’s order is exfacie unconstitutional and in the teeth of the law declared in the landmark judgement of Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu. The order is also a direct interference in the ‘proceedings of the House’ under Para 6(2) of the Tenth Schedule which is prohibited under Article 212 of the Constitution, as it interdicted the Speaker from acting under the Tenth Schedule at the stage of notice itself and restrained him from even proceeding to call for replies from the Respondents.

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The petitioner has also stated that the impugned order is completely non reasoned and does not reveal any reasons for passing the status quo order. Furthermore, the issues and questions raised by the Respondents before the High Court already stand settled by many decisions of this Hon’ble Court like Constitutional validity of Para 2(1)(a) stands concluded by the decision of the Constitution Bench in Kihoto.

-India Legal Bureau