NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the high court’s July 24 order asking the Assembly speaker to defer disqualification proceeding against sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs.
Joshi has moved the top court two days after Assembly Speaker CP Joshi filed the appeal against the July 24 Rajasthan High Court order. The plea said the high court order is ex-facie unconstitutional, illegal and in the teeth of the law laid down by this court in the 1992 verdict in the case of Kihoto Hollohon.
The 1992 judgment had held that the Speaker has the authority to decide the disqualification proceedings and judicial intervention in the process is not permissible. The order which constricts and restricts the jurisdiction of the Speaker to even adjudicate on the disqualification petitions is plainly illegal, unconstitutional and in the teeth of settled principles of law laid down by this court,” his petition stated.
Joshi On July 29 had moved the court challenging the July 24 order of the high court which had directed maintenance of status quo on the disqualification notice issued to 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including Pilot. In his petition, Joshi has sought a stay on the high court’s order contending that it was ex-facie unconstitutional and was a direct intrusion into the domain exclusively reserved for the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.