HC makes Centre a party in rebel MLAs’ petition

New Delhi

New Delhi

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The Rajasthan high court on Friday allowed the application filed by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 dissident Congress MLAs asking the court to include the Union government as a party to the case filed by them challenging speaker CP Joshi’s disqualification notice of July 14.

In their application moved through counsel S Hariharan and Divyesh Maheshwari, the rebel camp said the Union government should be included as a party because the validity of constitutional provisions (10th schedule) are under challenge.

In their petition filed on July 15, the Pilot camp made the speaker and secretary of Rajasthan legislative assembly as respondents.

The original version of the petition challenged only the speaker’s notice issued to them. However, the petition was amended later in the day to include an additional prayer challenging paragraph 2(1)(a) of tenth schedule of the Constitution. Para 2(1)(a) provides for disqualification of lawmakers on the ground of voluntarily giving up party membership.

Since, the Constitutional provision was challenged, it became imperative to hear the central government due to which the application was moved on Thursday to add the Centre as party to the case.