Rajasthan political crisis: High Court accepts Sachin Pilot camp's plea to make Centre a party

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday (July 24) allowed the petition moved by dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot and 18 MLAs seeking impleadment of Union of India in a writ petition on the disqualification issue. The court made Centre a party in the case against Congress in the petition filed by Team Pilot against disqualification notice, according to an ANI report.

Pilot and his supporting Congress MLAs had challenged a disqualification notice given by the Assembly Speaker in the Rajasthan High Court. In the last hearing, the Rajasthan High Court had asked the Speaker to wait for its verdict on Friday before taking any action on Team Pilot. 

In his petition filed on Wednesday, Congress MLA Prithviraj Meena had said, "It is humbly prayed that the Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, (Dept of Legal Affairs) be made a party/respondent to the present writ petition in the interest of justice and law.

On July 21, the Pilot camp got another three-day breather from the Rajasthan High Court after it finished hearing the arguments and reserved the judgment for July 24.

The rebels had argued that no whip can be in issued when the Assembly is not in session and maintained that they had no plans to quit the ruling Congress but wanted a change in its Rajasthan leadership.

Meanwhile, Speaker Joshi on July 22 filed a CLP in the Supreme Court, and its hearing is scheduled on July 27.