Sachin Pilot moves Rajasthan HC on Speaker’s notice for disqualification

New Delhi, July 17: Former deputy chief minister of Rajasthan Sachin Pilot has moved the state high court against the Assembly Speaker’s notice of disqualification for a range of alleged anti-party activities.

Pilot moved the court ahead of the Friday deadline the Speaker had given him and 18 other rebel MLAs to respond, The Tribune reported. The notice accused the rebels of deliberately skipping two Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meetings at Jaipur and “deliberate collusion to topple the state government”.

The Pilot camp has argued before the court that their absence at the CLP meetings cannot constitute defiance of the whip because whip applies only when the assembly is in session and the whip is issued on the floor of the house. The Pilot group has taken the battle to the court and would expect to pre-empt disqualification from the assembly by the Speaker.

Pilot’s move to go to the high court seeks to act in time to thwart damages because the Speaker’s ruling once passed is hard to challenge legally. The disqualification notices have put spokes in the wheels of the Pilot camp with three MLAs said to have returned to Gehlot since yesterday according to the claims by CM’s people.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/sachin-pilot-moves-rajasthan-high-court-on-speakers-notice-for-disqualification-113775