SC says rebel Karnataka MLAs at liberty not to participate in trust vote

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 17

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave liberty to 15 rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka not to participate in the trust vote on Thursday.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said state Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar mught decide on the resignation as and when he wanted.

The verdict came on petitions of 15 rebel MLAs belonging to the Congress-JD(S) coalition seeking direction to Kumar to accept their resignations.

The top court said the discretion given to the state Assembly speaker to decide on resignations of rebel MLAs couldn’t be fettered with any direction.

It said the rebel MLAs ought not to be compelled to participate in the July 18 trust vote.

While passing the interim order, the Bench said the Speaker’s decision would be placed before it.

The verdict is likely to have a bearing on the survival of the Kumaraswamy government in Karnataka which is seeking a vote of confidence on Thursday. The Opposition BJP claimed that the Congress-JD(S) coalition had been reduced to minority.

The Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka has been facing a political crisis since July 6 when 10 Congress and three JD(S) MLAs submitted their resignation to the Speaker’s office.