Rajasthan political crisis: Speaker CP Joshi moves Supreme Court against High Court order

New Delhi: Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi moved the Supreme Court challenging the July 24 order of the Rajasthan HC which barred him from processing a Congress petition to disqualify 19 rebel Congress MLAs. The plea is likely to be mentioned on Thursday for an early hearing.

The petition said the HC order went against an SC ruling in the Kihoto Hollohon case, which said ‘any conduct from which it can be inferred that a person has left a party would attract disqualification’. The HC has no power to review an SC verdict. The HC could not have given rebels any relief, the petition filed by advocate on record Sunil Fernandes, said. The petition has been settled by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha.

“The high court acted in gross indiscipline and judicial impropriety in seeking to reopen issues settled by a Constitution bench. The constitutional validity of the 10th Schedule para 2(1)(a) had been challenged in this court in Kihoto and the contention was negative.”


HC could not have sat as an appellate authority over the Kihoto ruling. “The judiciary was never expected to interfere… resulting in encroachment in the field exclusively reserved for the Speaker,” the plea said.