Rajasthan assembly Speaker CP Joshi on Wednesday announced that he was moving the Supreme Court against the high court order asking him to defer action against 19 rebel Congress MLAs, including former deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. “To address the constitutional crisis arising out of the high court order, I have directed my lawyer to file an SLP in the Supreme Court,” Joshi said in Jaipur.

A special leave petition (SLP) means that an individual takes special permission to be heard in appeal against any high court/tribunal verdict. 

Speaker CP Joshi had served disqualification noticies to Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs for defying a party whip. The dissident MLAs have challenged the disqualification notices from the Speaker, moving court last Friday. The division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Prakash Gupta also heard the case on Monday and Tuesday.

Congress, the ruling party in Rajasthan, had complained to the Speaker that the MLAs had defied a whip to attend two Legislature Party meetings, on Monday and Tuesday last week.

The Pilot camp, however, argued that a party whip applies only when the assembly is in session.

The dissidents also argued that they had no plans to quit the party and only wanted a change in its Rajasthan leadership.