SC rejects Rajasthan Speaker’s plea to stay HC proceedings
Case pertains to validity of the anti-defection notices he issued to Pilot, 18 MLAs
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi’s plea to stop the State’s High Court from deciding the validity of the antidefection notices he issued to former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 dissident Congress MLAs. But the High Court order on July 24 will be subject to the final decision on the Speaker’s remonstrance in the top court that the HC crossed the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and interfered with an ongoing disqualification proceedings even before he could take a final decision. The Speaker had complained that the HC had no jurisdiction to ask him to defer the disqualification proceedings till July 24. The top court scheduled a hearing on Monday (July 27). During the hearing on Thursday, a threejudge Bench, led by Justice Arun Mishra, said the “larger question” here is whether a legislator’s “voice of dissent” can be “shut down” with the threat of disqualification. Can expressing dissent amount to “voluntarily giving up the party membership” under Paragraph 2(1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of
the Constitution and invite antidefection proceedings? “Can the voice of dissent [of MLAs] be shut down like this in a democracy? This is not a simple matter. These are people elected by the public. The larger question is about democracy and how it will survive like this... This for us is not about the disqualification of some people,” Justice Mishra addressed senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Speaker. “If these MLAs have to voice their dissent, let them do it in their party meetings. The disqualification petition before me says they did not attend party meetings, they attempted to destabilise their own government, they are sitting incommunicado in a Haryana hotel and making demands for a floor test in the media...,” Mr. Sibal responded to Justice Mishra. He said the July 14 notice issued by the Speaker was an opportunity for the MLAs to explain their conduct. “I, as the Speaker, am giving them a chance to respond to the petition... As to why there are holed up in a hotel? If I am satisfied with their explanation, I will not disqualify them. But no judicial authority can interfere till I make my final decision in the disqualification proceedings. That is the law you declared in Kihoto Hollohan case in 1992,” Mr. Sibal submitted.
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