Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday resumed hearing a petition by Sachin Pilot and 18 Congress legislators backing him challenging the disqualification notices issued to them by Rajasthan assembly Speaker CP Joshi for their rebellion against the party.
The high court is expected to pass an order later in the day.
If the high court decides to disqualify Pilot and members of his camp, it will have a direct bearing on the numbers in the Rajasthan assembly.
Their disqualification will bring down the majority mark in the assembly—101 in the 200-member house making it easier for chief minister Ashok Gehlot to win a floor test. Gehlot has claimed he has the support of more than 100 members of legislative assembly (MLAs) and Pilot is being backed by 18 legislators.
A third meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) will also take place at Fairmont Jaipur, a luxury hotel on the outskirts of the state capital where the legislators supporting Gehlot have been staying since last week.
In its previous hearing last Friday, the high court had directed that no action can be taken against Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs until 5.30pm on Tuesday.
The hearing, which remained inconclusive on Monday, resumed in the court of chief justice Indrajit Mahanty and justice Prakash Gupta on Tuesday morning.
The disqualification notices to Pilot and the MLAs were served after the Congress party complained to Rajasthan assembly speaker CP Joshi that they defied a whip to attend two CLP meetings on July 13 and July 14.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Joshi, said on Monday that the petition, which was filed on July 15, was premature and that the court should not intervene until the speaker had taken a final call on disqualifying the rebel MLAs from the House.
The Pilot camp, however, argues that a party whip applies only when the assembly is in session.
Singhvi said the Speaker was well within his jurisdiction to issue notices to the petitioners.
Pilot and other rebel MLAs have maintained that they never had the intention to leave the Congress party and were merely exercising their right to criticise party leadership and the functioning of the chief minister.
“Pulling down a government and pulling down a chief minister was not the same thing,” Harish Salve, representing the petitioners, said.
Pilot was sacked as the Rajasthan deputy chief minister and the president of the state Congress unit after he rebelled against chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
