BSP MLAs merger: Gehlot govt gets a breather from Rajasthan High Court

Jaipur: Amid the ongoing political crisis in the state, the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday 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 Bahujan Samaj Party 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 August 8.

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 stay the functioning of the six as Congress legislators.

Contending that the single judge bench has not given them interim relief, and that the notice it had issued to the MLAs concerned had not reached them as they are in Jaisalmer, they demanded that the court should, therefore, stay the merger order.

The single judge bench earlier issued notice to the Speaker, the Assembly Secretary and six MLAs on July 30 and slated the next hearing on August 11.