In a case, which has left Karnataka politics become talk of the country while throwing light on how bad the state of affairs can become in such a situation in an Indian state and require the top court’s intervention for relief, the Supreme Court of India will give its verdict.
The situation boiled to such a level after 10 rebel MLAs had moved the apex court on 10 July alleging that the Karnataka Assembly Speaker was deliberately not accepting their resignations. Five more legislators submitted the plea last Saturday seeking identical relief.
On Monday, the apex reserved its judgement despite a day-long hearing in the case. The verdict is expected by today, as the Supreme Court of India is set to pronounce its judgement on rebellious Karnataka MLAs’ plea regarding their resignation case.
Appearing for the Karnataka Assembly speaker, Senior advocate A M Singhvi on Monday told the Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that the State Assembly Speaker will decide on both disqualification and resignation of the rebel MLAs by today but the court should modify its earlier order regarding maintaining the status quo.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the rebel legislators, apprised the apex court that the Speaker can be directed to decide on the resignation of these MLAs by today itself and he can later take a call on the disqualification proceedings.
He argued that the Speaker cannot keep the resignations pending and by doing so he is acting in a partisan manner.
Singhvi, countering his submissions, told the Bench, which also had Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, that Speaker cannot be asked to decide the matter in a time-bound manner.
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The rebel MLAs had earlier told the court the State government has been reduced to a minority and the Speaker by not accepting their resignations has attempted coercing them to vote for the government during the trust vote.
The top court on 12 July had restrained the Speaker from taking any decision till July 16 on the resignation and disqualification of the rebel MLAs.