SC defers considering plea on merger of BSP MLAs into Congress in Rajasthan

The Supreme Court on Monday deferred hearing a plea related to the merger of six Rajasthan BSP MLAs into the ruling Congress party.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari put the petition filed by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar for consideration on August 24 against Speaker C P Joshi's decision of September 18, 2019.

Advocate Sunil Fernandes, appearing for the Speaker submitted the single judge had partly dictated the order in the matter on Friday. However, the HC has been closed for three days for sanitisation. He said the matter can be taken up next week.

Senior advocate Satyapal Jain, appearing for the MLA and senior counsel S C Mishra also asked the court to adjourn the matter to next week.

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.

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