JAIPUR : The Rajasthan Assembly Speaker on Wednesday said he will move the Supreme Court, a day after receiving a “direction” from the high court to defer action on the notices sent to dissident Congress MLAs.
Speaker C P Joshi told reporters that he is filing a special leave petition (SLP) before the apex court to avoid a constitutional crisis.
The division bench Tuesday deferred its order till Friday on a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, challenging the disqualification notices sent to them.
It had requested the Speaker also to put his next move also on hold till then and “directed accordingly”.
“I have asked my lawyer to file an SLP in the Supreme Court as to why we are moving towards a constitutional crisis,” the Speaker said at a press conference.
Joshi said circumventing the defined roles of an institution is a threat to parliamentary democracy.
“So, before we move towards a constitutional crisis, I thought it is appropriate that a petition be filed in the Supreme Court,” he added.
“I hope that the court will take cognisance of the petition despite the coronavirus crisis, so that it can be ensured that an authority can discharge its role under the constitutional system,” he said.
Joshi said only show-cause notices were issued to the MLAs and no decision had been taken.
The Speaker’s counsel had twice before agreed to the court’s “request” to extend the deadline for receiving replies from the MLAs to the show cause notices.
On Tuesday, the court of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta made a similar request when the proceedings did not get over by the end of the day and were put off till Friday.
The problem appears to have arisen after the court recorded this in writing, adding that it has “directed accordingly”.
The Speaker’s office had issued notices to the Pilot and the other MLAs on July 14 on the basis of a complaint from their party that they had skipped two meetings of the Congress Legislature Party, defying a whip.
The notices gave the MLAs three days to submit their reply on why they should not be disqualified from the assembly.
But the dissident leaders moved the Rajasthan High Court on July 16, challenging the notices. (AGENCIES)
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