Karnataka ruling may impact coalition

Tribune News Service 

New Delhi, July 16

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday pronounce its verdict on petitions of 15 rebel MLAs belonging to the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka, seeking a direction to Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignations.

A three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi today heard arguments by lawyers representing the rebel MLAs, Speaker and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. It will pronounce its verdict at 10.30 am tomorrow. While the petitioners insisted that the Speaker must accept their resignations, the latter contended he would first decide the disqualification proceedings pending against the rebel MLAs.

The Bench raised questions over the Speaker sitting over the resignations. It said the the conduct of Speakers “probably needs a re-look”.

The verdict is likely to have a bearing on the survival of the Kumaraswamy government which will see a trust vote on Thursday. The Kumaraswamy-led government has been facing a crisis since July 6 when 10 Congress and three JD(S) MLAs submitted their resignation with the Speaker’s office. Another Congress MLA R Roshan Baig submitted his resignation on July 9. Since then the number of rebels has gone up to 15. On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi said the resignation by an MLA depended only on two factors — if it’s genuine and if it’s voluntary.