What Next For Gehlot Government If The Court Favours Pilot And The 18 MLAs In Today's Hearing?

The Rajasthan High court will continue its proceedings in the Pilot case today at 10 am. Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the speaker, will resume his arguments.

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Rajasthan Political Crisis:  Rajasthan High Court will on Monday resume hearing on the petitions by Sachin Pilot and 18 other rebel Congress legislators against the disqualification notices served on them by state assembly Speaker CP Joshi. Pilot and the MLAs from his camp had approached the Court over disqualification notice seeking the quashing and setting aside of the show cause notice issued to them on July 14 by the Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly. According to the notice, if these MLAs fail to respond to the notice then the Speaker can proceed ex parte and disqualify them from the Assembly. ALSO READ|Rajasthan Crisis: Congress Reminds Shekhawat His 'Probe' Promise; Demands Resignation Over Audio Tape Row The Congress complaint and the Speaker’s notice came after Pilot and the lawmakers supporting him skipped Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings on July 13 and 14. On Friday, the high court had directed that no action be taken against Sachin Pilot and the other rebel Congress MLAs until Tuesday and had deferred the hearing of their plea challenging the state assembly speaker’s disqualification notices. Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the speaker, will resume his arguments at 10 am on Monday. Senior counsel Harish Salve and Mukul Rohtagi, representing Pilot and other MLAs, have completed their side of arguments. What next for Gehlot Govt if the court favours Pilot? The Congress party can convene the assembly party as the next step if the court favours Pilot's team. In the assembly, the Chief Minister will prove his numbers, which the Congress claims are above the majority mark. Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi, who is also a respondent in the case, will issue a whip to all Congress MLAs to vote in favour of the party. If Team Pilot violates the whip or abstains, they will be disqualified under Section 2(1)(b) of the Tenth Schedule for acting contrary to the whip right away. It can, however, be challenged in court. The current disqualification proceedings against Pilot and his team are under Section 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, also known as the Anti-Defection law. Earlier on Saturday, Chief Minister Gehlot had called on Governor Kalraj Mishra and handed him a letter confirming the support of two Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) MLAs to Congress party. In the house of 200, Congress has 107 MLAs, including 19 of those who have been issued notices of disqualification by the assembly speaker on the complaint by chief whip Mahesh Joshi. The party claims that the Gehlot government has 109 MLAs, including Congress, independents, and other supporting party legislators, in its support to run the government.