A division bench of the Rajasthan high court (HC) on Wednesday issued notice to Assembly Speaker CP Joshi and asked him to respond to it by the following day regarding the special appeal of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Madan Dilawar seeking an immediate stay on the merger of six BSP legislators with the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government that was effected last September.
“The two-member HC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Indrajeet Mahanty and Justice Prakash Gupta, has issued the notice to Assembly Speaker Joshi and has sought his response by Thursday,” said Dinesh Kumar Garg, the BSP’s counsel.
Garg said the arguments on behalf of BSP were made by the party’s national general secretary Satish Mishra.
Senior counsel Harish Salve argued on behalf of the BJP, he added.
Garg said that earlier a prayer was moved before HC to suspend the order of the merger of the six BSP legislators with the Congress, as approved by Speaker Joshi on September 18, 2019.
The BSP counsel also cited that a single HC bench on July 30 had issued notice to the six erstwhile BSP members of the Rajasthan legislative assembly (MLAs) and had sought their response by August 11 along with Speaker Joshi and the secretary of assembly secretariat, Pramil Mathur.
The six MLAs -- Sandeep Yadav, who represents Tijara assembly constituency; Wajib Ali (Nagar); Deepchand Kheria (Kishangarh Bas); Lakhan Meena (Karauli). and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati) – had contested the 2018 Rajasthan polls on BSP tickets, but later merged with the ruling Congress last September.
{{/usCountry}}The six MLAs -- Sandeep Yadav, who represents Tijara assembly constituency; Wajib Ali (Nagar); Deepchand Kheria (Kishangarh Bas); Lakhan Meena (Karauli). and Rajendra Gudha (Udaipurwati) – had contested the 2018 Rajasthan polls on BSP tickets, but later merged with the ruling Congress last September.
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