Speaker to Not Act Against Sachin Pilot, 18 MLAs Till 24 July: HC

File photo of Sachin Pilot. 

(Photo Courtesy: Ravi Shankar Vyas/IANS)

The Rajasthan High Court, on Tuesday, 21 July asked the Assembly Speaker to not take any action against Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel Congress MLAs till the court has pronounced the verdict. The final order is slated to be pronounced on Friday, 24 July.

According to Live Law, the verdict will be delivered by a bench comprising Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta.

Pilot’s camp had challenged the disqualification notices issued against them by the Assembly Speaker on 16 July.

During a court hearing of the case, Abhishek Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the Speaker, argued that the petition of the Pilot faction is premature and hence, should be dismissed.

Singhvi, according to ANI, had stated that the Speaker’s order can be challenged only on limited grounds, and those grounds were not in the petition.

Harish Salve and Mukul Rastogi, senior advocates appearing for Pilot’s camp, had argued that the petitioners had neither defected from the party nor given up their membership, and that the Speaker was acting with “mala fides”, reported Live Law.

Harish Salve had pointed out that a mere act of inner-party indiscipline cannot be regarded as giving up of party membership. He also stated that issuing such a notice for inner-party dissent is violative of the legislator’s freedom of speech, and that the Speaker cannot issue the said notice on the complaint of the Congress whip.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday, in an address to the press, alleged that Sachin Pilot had been ‘conspiring with the BJP for the last 6 months’.

(With inputs from Live Law.)