Six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs of Rajasthan filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking transfer of the matter pertaining to their merger with Congress in the state from Rajasthan High Court, leaving the political crisis in Rajasthan unresolved yet.
The status of these six MLAs is disputed. Ten months ago, all the six MLAs had announced their merger with the ruling Congress, boosting its numbers in the Assembly.
The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday, 6 August gave some relief to the Ashok Gehlot government in the case challenging the merger of six BSP legislators with the ruling Congress and seeking a stay on it.
Disposing of a petition filed by BSP national Secretary Satish Mishra and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Madan Dilawar, a division bench of Chief Justice Inderjit Mahanti and Justice Prakash Gupta said that notice, issued earlier by a single judge bench, should be delivered to all six former BSP MLAs, by 8 August.
As the ruling party MLAs are camping in a Jaisalmer hotel, it said that the Jaisalmer District Judge should ensure timely delivery of the notice, taking the help of the local Superintendent of Police.
The notice should also be published in Jaisalmer newspapers, said the court.
The BSP and the BJP leaders had approached the division bench on Tuesday, challenging the order of a single-judge bench that refused to put a stay on the functioning of the six leaders as Congress legislators.
The single-judge bench earlier issued notice to the Speaker, the Assembly Secretary and six MLAs on 30 July and scheduled the next hearing for 11 August.
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