Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court has ordered status quo and said rebel MLAs of sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot’s camp can’t be disqualified for now.
The Rajasthan High Court has allowed team Pilot’s eleventh-hour request to add the centre to the case so it can weigh in on whether the anti-defection law applies to them.
Only on Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to stop the High Court from delivering the verdict that is likely to impact the revolt-hit Congress government in Rajasthan, saying the voice of dissent cannot be suppressed in a democracy.
Stating that voice of dissent in a democracy cannot be shut down, the Supreme Court questioned Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi on the reasons for initiating disqualification proceedings against 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.
The apex court’s bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra made this observation when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Joshi, listed the reasons for starting disqualification proceedings and said that these MLAs did not attend party meetings and conspired to destabilise their own government.
“This is not a simple matter and these MLAs are elected representatives,” the bench said and added: “Voice of dissent in democracy cannot be shut down. We are trying to find out whether this process (disqualification) was permissible or not.”