New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant any interim relief to the Rajasthan BJP MLA Madan Dilwar who sought a stay in speaker CP Joshi's September order recognising the merger of 6 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs into congress.
The bench comprising of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice BR Gavai and Justice MR Shah said that they won't interfere in the matter right now as the matter is listed for hearing tomorrow in the Rajasthan HC and adjourned it for hearing on 17th Aug next week.
Dilwar had contended that merger happened only to increase the congress' strength in assembly from 101 MLAs.
Earlier today, the Rajasthan High Court has posted for hearing on Friday the petitions challenging the merger of six MLAs.
After hearing arguments, Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal posted the matter for next hearing on Friday as a half-day was observed in the court.
The Rajasthan assembly speaker's counsel Kabil Sibal argued that the BSP must approach the speaker first. In case, he does not pass any order, then the BSP may approach the court for a direction to the speaker for deciding their application.
The petitioners have challenged the merger of the six MLAs -- Sandeep Yadav, Wajib Ali, Deepchand Kheria, Lakhan Meena, Jogendra Awana and Rajendra Gudha -- with the Congress and demanded a stay on the execution of the order passed by the speaker.
They contested and won the 2018 assembly elections on BSP tickets. All of them defected to the Congress in September 2019. The MLAs submitted an application for the merger on September 16, 2019 and the speaker issued an order on September 18, 2019. BJP MLA Dilawar challenged the merger and filed a petition before the speaker in March this year which was rejected on July 24.
The merger of BSP MLAs with the ruling Congress was a boost to the Ashok Gehlot-led government in the state as the tally of the Congress increased to 107 in the house of 200.
(Inputs from PTI)
Also Read: BSP MLAs became integral part of Congress after merger: Rajasthan Congress
