The Rajasthan High Court today adjourned till July 20 the hearing in the petition filed by 19 rebel Congress MLAs led by Sachin Pilot against the disqualification notices issued against them by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly..The matter was heard today by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta..On July 16, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had delivered an order in 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..The amended writ petition had challenged the Constitutionality of Clause 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India for being violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The Tenth Schedule deals with the law regarding anti-defection..[Rajasthan crisis] Rajasthan HC approves amendment to petition filed by Sachin Pilot & team; Plea to be heard by Division Bench tomorrow.Senior Advocate Harish Salve, arguing today for the rebel Congress MLAs, stated that if there is dissent against the Chief Minister by a member of the party and expression of being unhappy with the leadership, then that cannot be construed to mean that the member has voluntarily left the party."If such an interpretation is taken, then it goes against my basic fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a)," argued Salve. .Salve stated that when the Tenth Schedule was being debated in Parliament, there was a clause (c), which said that if you expel a member then that person will be disqualified from the House. However, when the Tenth Schedule came to be enacted, clause (c) was dropped..Rajasthan crisis: HC allows Sachin Pilot, rebel Congress MLAs to move amendment plea to challenge Constitutionality of "some provisions".The Senior Advocate stated that by resorting to this impugned notice served upon the 19 MLAs, political parties are in fact in practice getting back that clause (c) as they don’t expel "but they keep the threat of disqualification on the person exercising free speech". Salve further stated that this act was against the "democratic party principle.".Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, also representing the petitioners, argued that the impugned notice is in breach of rules of the Assembly, which prescribes a seven-day notice. In this case, only three days' notice was given, he pointed out. "Thus the notice needs to be struck down on this ground itself, with reference to the BS Yeddyurappa case", he argued..Breaking: SC refuses to stay swearing in of BS Yeddyurappa as Karnataka CM, asks for letters to Governor.Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Speaker, argued that a five-judge Bench has already ruled that there can be no judicial interference as long as the matter is pending before the Speaker..Singhvi will continue his arguments on Monday, when the hearing resumes. The Senior Advocate also assured the Court that the Speaker would not take any decision on the notice served upon the MLAs till Tuesday evening. .The Speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly had issued disqualification noticesagainst the rebel Congress MLAs on the ground that they violated the direction issued by party chief whip Dr. Mahesh Joshi to attend the legislative party meeting on Monday and Tuesday.The rebel MLAs assert in the writ petition challenging the issuance of these notices that they have not expressed any intention to leave or voluntarily give up their membership of Indian National Congress..The petitioners 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," the amendment plea further reads..Advocates Hariharan and Divyesh Maheshwari appeared along with Salve and Rohatgi for the petitioners.Advocate General Abhay Bhandari and Senior Counsel 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 along with Singhvi for the respondents, including the Speaker..[Read Order]
