Rajasthan Assembly Speaker moves SC challenging HC's status quo order

New Delhi, July 29: Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the July 24 order of the high court which had directed maintenance of status quo on the disqualification notice issued to 19 dissident Congress MLAs, including sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.

In his appeal, the Speaker said that high court's order is "ex-facie unconstitutional" and is a "direct intrusion" into the domain exclusively reserved for the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.

The plea, filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes, claimed that the high court’s order is a “direct interference” in the 'proceedings of the House' under the Tenth Schedule, which is prohibited under Article 212 of the Constitution.

“It is further submitted that the impugned order is completely non reasoned and does not reveal any reasons for passing the status quo order,” the plea said.

The assembly Speaker had issued the notice to these MLAs on July 14 after the ruling Congress had complained to him that the legislators had defied a whip to attend two legislature party meetings.

The high court had passed the order on the plea filed by these MLAs who have challenged the disqualification notice issued to them.