Supreme Court refuses to pass interim order in Rajasthan BSP MLAs case

A day before the Rajasthan Assembly session, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to pass any interim order on a plea related to the merger of six BSP MLAs into the ruling Congress party.

"We will not interfere at this stage since the High Court is already hearing the matter," a bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari told senior advocate Harish Salve, who questioned the validity of the Speaker's decision of September 18, 2019, allowing the merger.

The court posted the petition by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar for consideration on Monday. Dilwar sought a stay on the order passed by Speaker C P Joshi.

He claimed the Speaker had no jurisdiction to record a finding of the so-called merger, without giving notice to the Bahujan Samaj Party and without holding an enquiry as to whether the party has actually merged in the Congress or not.

Appearing for Dilawar, Salve, for his part, said the situation in Rajasthan may lead for the number count and the Speaker's order continued to be in operation.

"Why should we take it up when the matter is pending before the High Court? Can the High Court not take care of this? If there is an order by the HC, it would have the same effect," the bench said.

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Senior advocate S C Mishra, for BSP, submitted that there was a question of the whip. Recently, a Rajya Sabha MP got elected taking the vote of BSP MLAs as that of Congress.

Opposing any interim order, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Speaker said the matter was already pending before the High Court. He said the Business Advisory Committee would meet at 10 am on Friday to decide the agenda.

Dilwar challenged the validity of the High Court's interim order of August 6, 2020. He claimed that HC had failed to appreciate that the Speaker straight away "illegally" accepted the request of six MLAs and allowed the merger of their party, i.e. BSP, into the Congress.

The Rajasthan Assembly Session is set to start its session on Friday after home-coming of sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and supporting rebel MLAs to the Congress party, after more than a month-long political crisis in the Ashok Gehlot government in the state.