Karnataka Crisis: Supreme Court to Pass Order in Rebel MLAs Case on July 17 at 10:30 am

The Supreme Court is set to pass the order in the case of Congress-JD(S) rebel MLAs on Wednesday at 10:30 am.

New Delhi: With the confidence motion to be taken up in Karnataka Assembly on July 18, the Supreme Court is set to pass the order in the case of Congress-JD(S) rebel MLAs on Wednesday at 10:30 am.

“Both parties have agreed for the confidence motion at 11 AM on Thursday,” Siddaramaiah told reporters, emerging out of the BAC meeting

The BJP, which had earlier sought to move a no-confidence motion, said it has agreed for the trust vote schedule

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Karnataka Speaker what stopped him from deciding on whether to accept or reject the resignations tendered by MLAs of the Congress-JD-S coalition on July 6.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi sought a clear response from senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi representing Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar.

“You were silent on the resignations till the MLAs came to the Supreme Court… Why?” Chief Justice Gogoi asked.

Singhvi replied that the Speaker filed an affidavit in the apex court explaining what had happened.

The CJI shot back asking why wasn’t a decision taken when the MLAs went to the Speaker with their resignations, to which Singhvi replied that it was a written communication, and the Speaker was not available on that day.

But the decision was communicated to him on July 6,” the court added.

Singhvi argued that the first condition “of a genuine resignation tendered by an MLA is that he has to be personally present before the Speaker” and added that the MLAs first met the Speaker on July 11.

Reacting sharply to this line of argument, the court said that the provision did not negate resigning by letter, but if the MLA had made a personal visit to the Speaker then he was expected to decide on the resignation immediately. “Why didn’t it happen on July 11?” the court further queried.

Asking if the Speaker was challenging the jurisdiction power of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice said: “For your benefit, the court had ordered a floor test (referring to the last year’s floor test) and appointed a protem Speaker in a midnight hearing. The exercise of jurisdiction of our powers depend only on self-restraint,” he added.

Singhvi said the Speaker was in no way questioning the court’s jurisdiction and added: “Suppose a Speaker goes crazy, then Your Lordships can intervene.”

With inputs from agencies