Three adjournments & amended petition: Here is how Pilot's plea panned out in Rajasthan HC

After Speaker of Legislative Assembly at Rajasthan issued show-cause tices to 19 MLAs from Sachin Pilot camp amidst severe political turmoil in state, re was much speculation about next move of former Deputy Chief Minister. All speculation was put to rest when Pilot, along with 19 of his MLAs, approached Rajasthan High Court in a petition challenging disqualification tice issued by Speaker.

petition first came up for hearing in Rajasthan High Court at 3 pm on Thursday before a single-judge bench of Justice Satish Chandra Sharma. At very outset, senior vocate Harish Salve, representing Pilot and his MLAs sought a short journment from Court to able to amend his petition.

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Why did petition need to be amended?

petition first filed before Rajasthan High Court was taken up by a single judge bench to judicate upon validity of show-cause tices issued to Members of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly. While members of Assembly h been served with a disqualification tice, procedure for disqualification was yet to be completed and final decision was said to have been taken by Rajasthan Speaker. 

In light of this, senior vocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Speaker before High Court, objected to maintainability of petition stating that procedure could t be challenged before a court of law, inste, only final decision of Speaker could be questioned. It was n that Harish Salve expressed his desire to challenge procedure of disqualification itself under Tenth Schedule of Constitution of India and sought to amend his petition to include grounds for same.

Section 2(1)(a) of Tenth Schedule of Constitution gives power to Speaker to disqualify any Member of House who h voluntarily given up membership of his political party under which he was elected. It was under this provision that show-cause tice was issued to MLAs. Soon after 3 pm hearing, an amended petition was filed before Rajasthan High Court challenging validity and constitutionality of Section 2(1)(a) of Tenth Schedule which has w turned this case into a constitutional question of law.

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Hearing on amended plea

second round of hearing took place at 5 pm in which Salve insisted before same single-judge bench that a question of constitutional importance h to be judicated upon by a two-judge bench of High Court. Justice Satish Chandra Sharma agreed to refer case to a division bench and allowed for amended petition to be heard on an urgent basis. Within a couple of hours, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court constituted a two-judge bench to hear matter on an urgent basis.

Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta assembled for a short hearing at 7:45 pm during which Singhvi assured Court that action will be taken against dissenting MLAs at least till 5 pm on Friday. On basis of this assurance, bench agreed to journ hearing till 1 pm tomorrow.

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Can power of Speaker under Section 2(1)(a) be challenged?

Time and again, Supreme Court has stated that with due respect to doctrine of separation of powers, court of law should interfere in a disqualification process until final decision is me by Speaker. With this in mind, it wouldn't be surprising if this is a first of its kind petition before a Court where this specific section is challenged. 

Having said that, it is also important to highlight that Supreme Court has consistently upheld provisions of Tenth Schedule of Constitution in a plethora of cases starting from landmark case of Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu of 1992 in which provisions of 52nd amendment of Constitution which inserted Tenth Schedule were analyzed by a Constitution Bench of top court and upheld. 

It remains to be seen wher Rajasthan High Court would be willing to go into question of constitutionality of Section 2(1)(a) of Tenth Schedule or if matter will end up before Supreme Court w.

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