‘Will Consider And See When to Take it,’ Says SC on Plea by Disqualified MLAs to Defer Karnataka Bypolls

The bypolls to 15 out of 17 vacant Assembly seats are currently scheduled to take place on December 5. The seats fell vacant after the incumbent MLAs were disqualified by the-then Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it would consider and see when the matter over further deferment of the Karnataka bypolls can be heard, just hours after the disqualified MLAs moved top court seeking that bypolls be postponed further.

Supreme Court says, it will consider and see as to when it can hear the matter pertaining to Karnataka disqualified MLAs seeking further deferment of state by-polls on 15 assembly seats. pic.twitter.com/JnBRyPHZpQ

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2019

The bypolls to 15 out of 17 vacant Assembly seats are currently scheduled to take place on December 5. Earlier, they were scheduled to be held on October 21 along with the Assembly Elections in Haryana and Maharashtra and bypolls in several other states. However, the Election Commission later postponed them in view of the ongoing case in the SC, moved by the 17 MLAs against their disqualification.

The development comes just days after the apex court rejected a plea by the opposition Congress to consider as evidence, a video of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, allegedly confessing that BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had arranged for and supervised the stay of the rebel MLAs in a luxury hotel in Mumbai.

Slamming the Congress, the SC had said that accepting the new evidence would only lead to delay in the judgment of the case.

The 17 MLAs-14 from the Congress and three from the JD(S)-had rebelled against the then-ruling coalition government under Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, causing it to collapse and paving the way for the BJP to return to power in the state. The rebel MLAs were disqualified by the-then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.