New Delhi: The Supreme Court today dismissed BJP MLA Madan Dilawar’s plea challenging speaker CP Joshi’s recognition of the ‘merging’ of 6 BSP MLAs with Congress after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal informed the court that the Rajasthan High Court has concluded the case and granted time to the Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly to decide on the merits of the disqualification petition filed against the BSP MLAs within the stipulated time.
The bench led by Justice Arun Mishra said that the bench had accommodated all the parties but it has now become infructuous.
The question of law which was raised in the petition before the High Court was: “Whether for the purposes of para 4 of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the original political party needs to merge apart from the merger of the legislative party.”
The petitioners referred to a case where a division bench of the Gauhati High Court in Speaker, Nagaland Legislative Assembly and Anr. Vs Imtilemba Sangtam, MLA and Ors had taken the view that the only requirement is of the merger of the legislative party and there is no requirement of the merger of the political party by virtue of the deeming fiction under sub-paragraph (2) of Paragraph 4 of the Tenth Schedule. Against this judgment, a special leave petition was filed, and leave has been granted and is presently pending.
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The petition became infructuous after the Rajasthan High Court gave Rajasthan Speaker three months to decide on merits the disqualification petition against 6 BSP MLAs who had later merged with Congress in the state.
– India Legal Bureau