Rajasthan HC Issues Notice To State Assembly Speaker CP Joshi In PIL Filed Over Resignation Of Congress MLAs

The Rajasthan High Court today issued a notice to the Rajasthan assembly Speaker, CP Joshi on a PIL plea filed before it pertaining to Speaker's inaction in taking a decision on the resignation submitted by 91 congress MLAs before him in September this year.

The bench of Justice M. M. Shrivastava and Justice Vinod Kumar Baharwani issued the notice on a petition filed by the deputy leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly and BJP MLA Rajendra Rathore. The speaker has been asked to file a reply in 3 weeks.

It may be noted that Rathore has moved the Court alleging that the speaker is sitting over the resignations for over two months (resignations being submitted in September) and has failed to arrive at any decision. 

It may be noted that in September this year, around 90 Congress MLAs had submitted their resignation to the State Assembly Speaker expressing their resentment over Congress High Command's decision to convene a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet to choose a new CM (in place of the current CM Ashok Gehlot).

The PIL plea states that since the MLAs had submitted their resignations as per Rule 173 of the Rules of Procedure of the Rajasthan Assembly, therefore, it is incumbent upon the speaker to accept the resignations.

The Plea seeks a direction to the Speaker to take a decision on the resignations within seven working days. Further, a direction has also been sought to the assembly secretary to produce the documents relating to the resignation and to disclose the identity of the MLAs who had submitted their resignations.