[Rajasthan crisis] Rajasthan HC approves amendment to petition filed by Sachin Pilot & team; Plea to be heard by Division Bench tomorrow

A Single Judge Bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma of Rajasthan High Court has delivered a second order on the plea filed by Sachin Pilot and other Congress MLAs seeking to quash the Speaker's notice and approved the prayer to amend their writ petition ( Prithviraj Meena v. The Honble Speaker ) .

.[Breaking] Passed in "Unholy Haste, mala fide": Plea in Rajasthan HC seeks to quash Speaker's notice against Sachin Pilot, Congress MLAs . In the latest order, Justice Sharma has stated that " in view of the proposed amendment ", the matter will now be placed before a Division Bench of the High Court.

. Earlier today, the Rajasthan High Court had allowed the 19 rebel Congress MLAs from Rajasthan, including former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot , to move an application to challenge the constitutional validity of some provisions.

. The request for the same was made today while arguing the plea filed by the 19 MLAs, led by Prithviraj Meena , challenging the Legislative Assembly Speaker's July 14 defection notice.

.Rajasthan crisis: HC allows Sachin Pilot, rebel Congress MLAs to move amendment plea to challenge Constitutionality of "some provisions". The amendment petition, accessed by Bar & Bench, has challenged the Constitutionality of Clause 2(1)(a) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India for being violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The 10th Schedule of the Constitution deals with anti-Defection law.

. "Clause 2(1) (a) which incorporates voluntary giving up of membership of a political party cannot be widely construed that the very same fundamental freedom of speech and expression of a member of the house is jeopardised." reads the amendment plea . The petitioner have stated that "freedom of speech and expression is not only an integral part of Part III of the Constitution of India but being a fundamental right, it is a part of the basic structure of the constitution of India."

. " Statutory provisions, as well as constitutional provisions, must withstand the scrutiny of the constitutional provisions which are forming part of the basic structure of the constitution ," further reads the amendment plea.

. The main writ petition was moved following a show-cause notice issued by the Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly on July 14 to the 19 MLAs asking them to explain their " anti-party activities".

. Pilot and the other 18 Congress MLAs have challenged the issuance of notice as having been made in " unholy haste " and as " mala fide and contrary to Assembly rules ."

. The amendment plea categorically states that " a mere expression of dissatisfaction or even disillusionment against the party leadership cannot be treated to be conduct falling within the clause 2 (1) (b) of the 10th schedule of the Constitution of India ".

. The plea states that the very foundation on which the Speaker has issued notice under the tenth schedule " are the facts which if not constitutionally construed in the aforesaid context, would render the provision itself as unconstitutional ."

. As per the plea, the Speaker, upon receiving the notice, issued notice to all the 19 MLAs on the same day and asked them to file a reply within two days. The Speaker stated that if the reply is not filed within this period, which ends tomorrow at 1 pm, then he would decide on the matter ex-parte.

. Senior Counsels Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the petitioners along with Advocates Hariharan and Divyesh Maheshwari.

. Advocate General Abhay Bhandari , Senior Counsels AM Singhvi, NK Maloo , Devadatt Kamat and Abhay Bhandari and Advocates Darsh Pareek, Siddhanth Jain, Prateek Kasliwal, Supriya Saxena, Siddharth Bapna, Sarvesh Jain, Anuj Bhandari and Ajeet Maloo appeared for the respondents, which includes the Speaker.

. Read the Order: . If the rebels can avoid being disqualified and are allowed to vote as Congress members, the Ashok Gehlot-led government could fall. He needs 101 MLAs to vote for him in the 200-member Assembly. Gehlot claims that he has the support of 106 MLAs, which has been contested by team Pilot.

. If the rebel MLAs are disqualified, the majority mark will drop, making it easier for Ashok Gehlot to win a floor test.

[Rajasthan crisis] Rajasthan HC approves amendment to petition filed by Sachin Pilot & team; Plea to be heard by Division Bench tomorrow

Debayan Roy