JAIPUR: The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday began hearing a plea by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar, challenging the state assembly's Speaker decision to reject his complaint against the induction of six BSP MLAs to the Congress.
After giving a partial hearing to Dilawar's plea questioning the Speaker's order to reject his complaint without issuing notice to him and letting him have his say, a bench of Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal slated the petition for further hearing at 2 pm on Thursday.
While starting the hearing on the BJP MLA's plea, Justice Goyal also tagged with it a BSP petition challenging the Speaker's order allowing the merger of all its six MLAs to the Congress last September.
The judge said he would hear the two similar petitions together.
BJP MLA Dilawar had on Tuesday filed two petitions before the court.
The first petition challenged a communication from the assembly secretariat informing the MLA that his complaint has been decided and rejected by the Speaker.
The second plea to the high court challenged the Speaker's detailed order dated July 24 that rejected the MLA's complaint against the merger of BSP MLAs with the Congress.
The court began hearing the BJP MLA's second petition as well as the one by the BSP together.
The MLA had lodged a complaint with Speaker's office in March this year against the merger of the BSP MLAs which was decided and rejected on July 24.
Dilawar has alleged the Speaker did not hear him while deciding and rejecting his complaint.
He had also staged a 'dharna' in the assembly secretary's chamber on Monday to get the copy of the order.
He was later given a communication saying his complaint has been rejected.
The detailed order was received by him on Tuesday.
The Six BSP MLAs whose merger has been challenged by the BJP MLA, as well as the BSP, are Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha.
They all had contested and won 2018 assembly elections on BSP tickets but had defected to the Congress in September 2019.
They submitted an application to the Speaker for the merger of their group with the Congress on September 16, 2019, and the Speaker allowed their plea on September 18, 2019.
The merger of the BSP MLAs to the ruling Congress was a boost to the Ashok Gehlot-led government as the Congress's tally increased to 107 in the House of 200.