Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Rathore on Tuesday challenged in the High Court the January order by Assembly Speaker C P Joshi where the latter had rejected the resignations of 81 Congress and supporting MLAs who had resigned in September last year. Filing an amended writ petition on Tuesday, Rathore demanded that the Speaker’s January 13 order, where he had rejected the resignations, be quashed and set aside. Arguing the case himself, Rathore cited various grounds for his plea. He said that there is no provision in the Constitution to permit a resigning MLA to withdraw the resignation once submitted before the Speaker. “A resignation submitted by a Member of Assembly, a constitutional functionary, becomes effective from the date of the resignation in terms of the constitutional mandate of Article 190(3) (b). The rule 173(1) clearly specifies the resignation to be the expression of intention to vacate the seat with immediate effect, unless specifically stated to be effective from a future date . A member of the legislative assembly cannot be forced to continue in his seat against his decision to vacate the seat,” said Rathore’s plea drafted by advocate Hemant Nahta and others. ‘Unhappy’ over Congress high command’s ‘unilateral’ decision to opt for a new chief minister without consulting them, 81 MLAs had skipped the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet and submitted their resignation to Speaker Joshi on September 25 last year. Subsequently, the resignations were rejected by Joshi, who, as per court documents, said that the MLAs “appeared before me one by one in person and voluntarily submitted prarthana patra (prayer letters) requesting withdrawal of resignation. In their prayer letters, they have clearly mentioned that the resignation letters given earlier were not voluntary.” Since then, both sides have made claims and counter claims over the validity of the Speaker’s decision to reject the resignations. Rathore said that the entire sequence of events leading to Speaker’s January 13 order “was a mere sham and part of a calculated political drama enacted in the Rajasthan Assembly, wherein the Hon’ble Speaker has rendered active cooperation in defeating the constitutional mandate.” On Tuesday, Rathore also claimed that the January order was passed by Joshi without conducting an enquiry, and prayed that the Court may direct the Speaker to complete the enquiry. In his reply to Rathore’s petition earlier this year, Assembly Secretary Mahaveer Prasad Sharma had said that the 81 resignation letters were presented to the Speaker by Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi, Deputy Chief Whip Mahendra Choudhary, ministers Shanti Dhariwal, Ramlal Jat, CM advisor Sanyam Lodha, and Rafeek Khan. Hence, Rathore also said that they be added/impleaded as respondents in the present writ petition. Claiming that the resignations continue to be effective to this date, Rathore said that a “necessary corollary is that their respective seats deserved to be declared as vacant with effect from September 25, 2022 itself.” Going a step further, he said that since they have “illegally benefitted” from government – as they haven’t been MLAs since September 2022 – they should deposit the government money allotted to them. Rathore has also prayed that the Assembly Secretary be directed to produce the entire record related to the handing over of the resignations, the copies of the inquiry report in respect of each of the 81 MLAs and the copy of each resignation withdrawal letters before the High Court. ____________________________________
