Sachin Pilot camp gets breather from speaker as court defers hearing

JAIPUR: In a breather to former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and his band of 18 Congress MLAs, speaker C P Joshi on Friday assured the Rajasthan high court that he would not act on the show-cause notices issued to them under the anti-defection law till Tuesday evening.
The deadline given to the legislators to respond on the speaker’s notices, though, had ended at 1pm on Friday.
A division bench comprising chief justice Indrajit Mahanty and justice Prakash Gupta deferred hearing in the matter until Monday morning when senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the speaker, would resume his arguments to counter Pilot camp’s plea that the notices were against the constitution and issued in haste.
It was argued that the speaker enjoyed autonomous powers. The petition challenging the show-cause notices was premature and the judiciary should not interfere till an order on the notices was passed.
Senior counsels Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Pilot camp, completed their arguments while speaking during court’s pre- and post-lunch time. The senior counsels appeared through video conferencing, while advocate general M S Singhvi and others were present in the courtroom. When the court asked if the counsels wanted a lunch break, Salve, who was in London, said it was breakfast time for him. The court took a nearly 45-minute break.
The 19 legislators, who have challenged the leadership of chief minister Ashok Gehlot, approached the court contesting that the speaker cannot give them defection notices for failing to attend Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings, as acts done outside the House were not violation of the anti-defection law. Disagreeing with ‘dictatorial functioning’ of the CM was freedom of expression and not defection, the court was told.
Salve said party whips were not applicable for meetings held at homes and hotels, but to proceedings within the House when the assembly is in session. The speaker’s notices were based on Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi’s petition that these MLAs failed to attend two consecutive CLP meetings on July 13 and 14. The first meeting was held at chief minister Gehlot’s residence, while the second was held at a luxury hotel on the city outskirts. The court permitted Joshi to be party to the case on Friday.
Advocate Prateek Kasliwal, who appeared on behalf of C P Joshi, told TOI, “The speaker has extended the time given to the MLAs to respond to 5.30pm till July 21, as the matter is being heard by the court. The speaker’s decision would be subject to any direction that may be passed by the court.”