NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday allows withdrawal of the petition by Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi challenging the Rajasthan High Court's order on Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel Congress MLAs
Senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, representing the Speaker, said that they need to figure out their legal strategy and sought withdrawal of the plea.
While withdrawing the plea, Sibal told the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, that the appeal had become infructuous as the apex court did not stay the earlier high court order passed last Tuesday asking the Speaker to defer the disqualification proceedings till Friday.
"We will contest it there and if need arises, we will again come back to Supreme Court. Unfortunately High Court is not following the 1992 'Kihoto'," Sibal told the bench.
"The SLP (special leave petition) is withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh SLP and keeping all grounds open," advocate Sunil Fernandes, who also represents Joshi, said.
The high court had last week ordered status quo to be maintained in the disqualification case against Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident Congress MLAs.
With this order, the court barred the Speaker from acting on the July 14 disqualification notices.
In a major setback for Ashok Gehlot government, the apex court had on Thursday refused the request of Speaker CP Joshi to stay the High Court proceedings on the petition by Sachin Pilot camp against disqualification notice.
The top court had said the high court order would be subject to the outcome of petition pending before the apex court.
Observing that "voice of dissent" in a democracy cannot be shut down, the apex court had refused to accept Joshi's request to either stay the matter pending before the high court or transfer it to the top court.
The court had said that the issue raised in the appeal by the Speaker required "prolonged hearing" as it involved "larger question" related to democracy and how it would survive.
(With PTI Inputs)