Jaipur, July 23: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to restrain the Rajasthan High Court from issuing verdict on the plea filed by former state deputy CM Sachin Pilot and 18 rebel Congress MLAs. The judgment will be pronounced by the HC tomorrow, whereas, the apex court will continue the hearing on Speaker's petition on Monday.

The High Court bench led by Chief Justice Indrajit Mohanty had concluded the hearings on Tuesday in the plea challenging the the disqualification notice issued by Speaker CP Joshi to the dissident Congress MLAs. ED Raids Premises of Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot's Brother Agrasen in Fertilizer Scam.

If the court strikes down the notice issued to them, Pilot and his aides would be allowed to attend the assembly proceedings.

For the Congress camp, the non-disqualification of Pilot and 18 rebel MLAs may trigger a blow as they are expected to vote against the Ashok Gehlot government in case of a floor test.

By disqualifying them, the party was hopeful of reducing the Assembly's effective strength, thereby allowing the incumbent government to remain in power.

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During the course of hearing in top court on Thursday, senior Congress leader and advocate Kapil Sibal was asked by Justice Arun Mishra whether the intra-party action against Pilot would not amount to suppression of dissent.

"Assume a leader has lost the faith of persons. While remaining in party they cannot be disqualified. Then this will become a tool and no one can raise their voice. The voice of dissent in a democracy cannot be suppressed like this," Justice Mishra was reported as saying.

Speaker Joshi had issued the disqualification notices to the 19 rebel legislators including Pilot after they failed to show up at two consecutive legislative party meetings called by Congress in the past week. Advocate Harish Salve, while defending the Pilot camp in Rajasthan HC, had claimed that the issuance of whip is not effective when the assembly is not in session.

Pilot and his supporters have constantly denied the charge of being involved in anti-party activities. According to ex-deputy CM, he had only attempted to change the state leadership and not to topple the government.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, however, claimed to have gathered evidence which suggest that Pilot was hobnobbing with the BJP for past six months in bid to bring down the state government. He also released audio intercepts with purported voices of rebel MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma, businessman Sanjay Jain and Union Minister and BJP leader Gajendra Shekhawat to support the allegations of horse-trading.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2020 12:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).