Jaipur, Jul 31 (IANS): The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Assembly Speaker, the Secretary of the Assembly Secretariat and six MLAs who contested elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket but then merged with the ruling Congress last year.

The notice was issued by a bench of Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal while hearing the writ petitions filed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and BJP MLA Madan Dilawar against the six MLAs who defected to the Congress. The hearing had resumed on Thursday after remaining inconclusive on Wednesday.

These former BSP MLAs, the Speaker and the Secretary of the Assembly Secretariat will have to submit their replies by August 11 which is the next date of hearing, said Dinesh Kumar Garg, counsel for BSP, adding that the arguments discussed the maintainability of the petition in which examples of previous rulings of the apex court were discussed.

The case of Haryana's Kuldeep Bishnoi was also discussed, he said.

The six BSP members who merged with Congress are Rajendra Gudha, Lakhan Meena, Deepchand Kheria, Sandeep Yadav, J.S. Awana and Wajib Ali.