Supreme Court: The Court has decided to hear the appeal of Rajasthan Assembly speaker CP Joshi against the stay order of Rajasthan High Court that asked the Speaker to not take action against Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs till July 24, at length and has said that the Order passed by Rajasthan High Court will be subject to the outcome of the said hearing.
“The case requires prolonged hearing so as to decide the question of jurisdiction. “
CP Joshi has filed the petition in Supreme Court to avoid contradiction between decisions of Speaker and court. He approached the Supreme Court against the interim order passed by the Rajasthan High Court on the petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs from his camp against the disqualification notices issued against them. Joshi, in his SLP, said that the impugned interim order has interdicted and restrained the Speaker from calling of replies and conducting hearing of the disqualification proceedings pending against the respondents till July 24.
Pilot has also filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to ensure that no orders are passed on Joshi’s petition against High Court interim orders without hearing him and his supporting MLAs. A caveat is a notice seeking that certain actions may not be taken without informing the person who gave the notice.
According to PTI, during the hearing today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued before the Court that Rajasthan High Court cannot direct Speaker to defer disqualification proceedings against MLAs.
“No writ can lie to challenge proceedings before Speaker prior to decision on disqualification or suspension of MLA.”
He further said that the Speaker can be asked to decide disqualification within time frame but the process can’t be interfered with.
Speaker Joshi submitted that the issue whether disqualification process against MLAs is permissible or not cannot be taken note of at this stage.
After hearing the submissions, the Court observed that Rajasthan Speaker’s petition against Rajasthan High Court’s order asking him to defer disqualification process till July 24 requires detailed hearing. It, however, refused to restrain the High Court from passing order on pleas of dissident 19 Cong MLAs challenging Speaker’s disqualification notice. The Court made clear that the Order passed by Rajasthan High Court will be subject to outcome of Speakers’ petition pending in the Supreme Court.
“As the High Court has already heard the matter after prolonged arguments and reserved the order, we are not staying the passing of the order, however, whatever order is passed, shall be ultimately subject to the outcome of this petition.”
Supreme Court has listed the matter for further hearing on July 27, 2020.
[Speaker, Rajasthan Legislative Assembly v. Prithviraj Meena, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 593, order dated 23.07.2020]
Also read:
Rajasthan Political Crisis | HC reserves order on petition by Sachin Pilot along with 18 other Congress MLAs, challenging disqualification notice issued by Assembly Speaker; To be pronounced on 24th July, 2020
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