Rajasthan assembly speaker on Wednesday said he will move the Supreme Court, a day after receiving a “direction” from the high court to defer action on the disqualification notices sent to dissident Congress MLAs.
IMAGE: Rajasthan assembly speaker CP Joshi. Photograph: ANI
“Speaker has the complete authority to send a show-cause notice. I have asked my counsel to file an SLP in the Supreme Court. Before we head towards a constitutional crisis, I decided to file the SLP,” said Rajasthan assembly speaker CP Joshi.
“Speaker’s responsibilities are well defined by the Supreme Court and Constitution. As the speaker, I got an application and to seek information on it, I issued a show-cause notice. If show-cause notice will not be issued by the authority, then what is the work of authority,” he added.
Joshi said this is the first that efforts are being made to circumvent the authority within the law.
“It is the job of the speaker to issue the notice and not to arrive at the judgment. This is only a show-cause notice. No decision has been taken yet,” he said.
He said that from 1992 onwards, no court has overturned the decision in matters pertaining to anti-defection law made by the assembly speaker.
“Law is made by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the Supreme Court does the job of interpreting. In 1992, it was decided how the anti-defection law will function. And it was decided the speaker will only decide the matter,” he added.
He further said that in Parliamentary democracy, the role of the constitutional authority is defined “and one who gets elected occupies that position.”
“You must remember after ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’ case, an amendment was made in the constitution. Following which, SC established the process of disqualification and the authority who will take the decision. And it was decided that the speaker will be responsible for the disqualification,” he added.
The high court had on Tuesday deferred its order till Friday on a petition filed by Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs, challenging the notices sent to them. It asked the Speaker also to put his next move on hold till then.
The speaker’s counsel had twice before agreed to the court’s “request” to extend the deadline for receiving replies from the MLAs to the show cause notices.
On Tuesday, the court made a similar request as the proceedings did not get over by the end of the day and were put off till Friday.
The problem appears to have arisen after the court recorded this in writing, adding that it has “directed accordingly”.
With inputs from ANI
