Rajasthan Speaker C P Joshi withdraws plea in Supreme Court against High Court order

Rajasthan Speaker C P Joshi on Monday withdrew from the Supreme Court his petition challenging the validity of the High Court's July 21 order directing him not to take any action against sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs in disqualification proceedings.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari allowed the plea by the Speaker.

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Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Speaker, submitted after the High Court's subsequent order of July 24, said they wanted to weigh their legal options. The High Court had then allowed maintainability of Pilot and other MLAs' plea questioning issuance of notice by the Speaker. It had ordered status quo in the matter and framed a series of legal questions for determination.

Sibal also indicated that the Speaker might file a fresh petition against July 24 order.

Deccan Herald had first reported on July 25 that the Speaker was likely to withdraw on Monday his pending petition before the Supreme Court against the High Court's interim order of July 21.

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Sources had then said as a change of strategy, a considered decision has been taken not to pursue the matter before the top court.

Notably, the court had on the last date of hearing on July 23 indicated to examine a larger issue if MLAs can have a right to voice their "dissent in democracy".

In the light of the High Court's order of July 24 and the Supreme Court's oral observations, the legal team pursuing Speaker C P Joshi's petition decided that they would prefer to withdraw the matter, they had said.