Rajasthan HC To Hear Sachin Pilot's Plea Against Disqualification At 1 PM; It's Harish Salve vs Abhishek Singhvi

The Pilot camp and Harish Salve has maintained that the disqualification notice was illegal. Sachin Pilot has been sacked from the chair of Deputy CM of Rajasthan and State Congress Chief.

Rajasthan Political Crisis:  Sachin Pilot’s petition seeking dismissal of the disqualification notices served to him and his 18 loyalists by Rajasthan speaker CP Joshi will be heard today by a two-member division bench of the Rajasthan High Court at 1 pm. The matter was deferred after filing of an amended petition by Sachin Pilot’s camp following the decision to withdraw an earlier petition filed at 3 pm on Thursday before a single judge bench. ALSO READ|Rajasthan Political Crisis: Ashok Gehlot Snipes At Sachin Pilot As Congress Seeks His Homecoming The development comes after Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi sent notices to Pilot and 18 MLAs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, popularly known as the anti-defection law after chief's whip application for their disqualification. MLAs were asked to present before Assembly Speaker on July 17. Pilot and his followers are being represented by a legal team led by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohtagi, who are contesting a notice of disqualification served on their clients by Rajasthan assembly speaker on the request of Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi. The matter had first come up before Justice Satish Chandra Sharma at about 3 pm on Thursday, but the dissidents’ advocate Harish Salve sought time to file a fresh petition, which was filed at about 5 pm. The court referred it to a two-judge division bench. Mahesh Joshi has also asked the Court to be heard in the matter. The chief whip is being represented by a legal team led by senior counsel and Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Pilot's camp claim they can't be disqualified for not attending Congress' meetings In the petition filed on Thursday, Sachin Pilot had argued that missing two meetings of Congress Legislative Party did not amount to defection. In the amended version, the petition argues that the “expression of dissatisfaction or even disillusionment against the party leadership” cannot be treated as conduct that could be covered under the anti-defection law. ALSO READ|Rajasthan Political Crisis: Sachin Pilot Quells Rumours About Joining BJP, Speaker Issues Notice To 19 Rebel MLAs It adds that expression of views and opinions, howsoever strongly worded, cannot be considered to trigger the anti-defection law, “the said clause would not stand the scrutiny and will have to be declared ultra vires the basic structure of the constitution” since it violates the lawmakers' freedom of expression, it argues. Gehlot's camp claims the rebel MLAs including Pilot have been disqualified for conspiring to topple the govt Gehlot's aide has alleged that Sachin Pilot and his supporting MLAs have been offered 25 crores by the BJP and the latter is conspiring to topple the Rajasthan government. Pilot was sacked from both the positions after he and his followers refused to attend two legislative party meetings held over two days to discuss alleged horse-trading charges and the differences between the two rival factions. Rajasthan Congress continues to remain in turmoil after simmering differences between Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot came out in the open.