Assembly Secretary to HC: MLAs withdrew resignations willingly

Jaipur: Rajasthan HC has been informed by Assembly Secretary on Monday in reply to a writ petition that the resignations of 81 MLAs given to Assembly Speaker on Sept 25 weren’t voluntarily and have been withdrawn.

The reply states, “The MLAs have voluntarily withdrawn their resignations as per Rule 173 (4) of the procedure and conduct of business of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, in such a situation the resignations of the MLAs have become non est in the eye of law.”

On Sep 25 last year, 81 MLAs had submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker CP Joshi. The move was aimed at opposing the CLP meet called to determine Gehlot’s successor as CM as Gehlot was the frontrunner for the post of Congress President at that time.

Later, Dy LoP Rajendra Rathore filed PIL in HC seeking direction to Assembly Speaker to decide on resignations. “Only 81 MLAs submitted resignation letters out of which, 5 were photocopies. The resignations were presented by 6 MLAs,” the reply said. He said that reply also mentions the names of 5 MLAs who had given photo copy of resignation letter & not the original. He said that 5 MLAs were those trying to please both Gehlot & Pilot camp. Resignation letters of Amit Chachan, Gopal Meena, Chetan Chaudhary, Danish Abrar & Suresh weren’t original but photocopies. Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on behalf of Speaker, presented the case via VC, while advocate Prateek Kasliwal was present on the Speaker’s behalf.

In the meanwhile, Advocate General Mahendra Singh Singhvi was present on the behalf of the Assembly Secretary.