Hearing before the Assembly Speaker has been deferred to 5 pm on Friday as a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court is slated to hear a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs against disqualification notices issued to them.
According to a letter written to Deputy Registrar (Judicial), Rajasthan High Court and signed by the advocate of petitioners and assistant to Advocate General, who is counsel for respondent number one in the case, the hearing before the assembly Speaker has been deferred till 5 pm.
"With reference to the notices of the Speaker dated July 17, 2020, during the course of mentioning before the Hon'ble Chief Justice for listing the matter for hearing on July 17, 2020 and in the context of the hearing of the matter being fixed at 1 pm, the hearing before the Speaker shall stand deferred to 5 pm on July 17, 2020, as agreed by both the Senior counsels appearing for the petitioners and the Speaker," the letter said.
"It is further agreed that no further notice for deferment of the hearing to 5 pm on July 17 before the Speaker shall be given to the petitioner, and all the terms of the notices dated July 14, 2020, shall remain same. This is naturally without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties and for the convenience of the court hearing at 1 pm on July 17, 2020," the letter said.
Earlier in the day, Rajasthan High Court accepted former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot camp's application for amendment in their petition against disqualification notice sent by the Rajasthan Assembly Speaker.
"They gave application for amendment of their petition. The court accepted their request and ordered to send the matter to the divisional bench for hearing," Abhay Kumar Bhandari who appeared before the High Court for state Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi told .
Pilot and the MLAs from his camp approached the Rajasthan High Court over disqualification notice seeking the quashing and setting aside of the show cause notice issued to them on July 14 by the Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
The development comes after Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi sent notices to Pilot and 18 MLAs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, popularly known as the anti-defection law after chief's whip application for their disqualification. The MLAs were asked to present before Assembly Speaker on July 17.
According to the notice, if these MLAs fail to respond to the notice then the Speaker can proceed ex parte and disqualify them from the Assembly.
The Congress complaint and the Speaker's notice came after Pilot and the lawmakers supporting him skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings on July 13 and 14.
Rajasthan Congress continues to remain in turmoil after simmering differences between Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was, on July 14, also sacked from the posts of Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and state PCC president.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has blamed the BJP for attempting to destabilise the state government by poaching MLAs.
A controversy had broken out in Rajasthan after Special Operation Group (SOG) sent a notice to Pilot to record his statement in the case registered by SOG in the alleged poaching of Congress MLAs in the state.
( With inputs from ANI )