Supreme Court reserves order on rebel K'taka MLAs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea by 15 Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) rebel lawmakers of the Karnataka assembly challenging the then-Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar’s decision to disqualify them for the rest of the term of the current House of the State Assembly.   

A bench of Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Krishna Murari reserved the verdict as both Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) defended the unseating of the   rebel lawmakers, while disqualified lawmakers described the then Speaker’s decision as “malafide and vengeful”.

Defending  the then Speaker’s decision to unseat the rebel lawmakers, senior counsel Kapil Sibal said that Speaker could not have ignored the conduct of 15 unseated lawmakers who were hobnobbing with the BJP leaders, going to the governor after submitting their resignations and then leaving for Mumbai in the chartered plane of BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Raveev Chandrasekhar.

Appearing for Congress leader Siddaramaiah, Mr Sibal said that the issue involved in the matter before the top court was of great importance that wo-uld have a bearing on the future polity of the country thus it should be referred to the five-judge Constitution bench.  
 
Appearing for a group of unseated lawmakers,, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi reiterated that the then Speaker’s action in sitting over the resignations of the Congress-JD(S) coalition’s rebel lawmakers and then disqualify them was “malafide”.

Rohatgi said that it was incumbent upon the Speaker to accept their resignations immediately after they were submitted to him in person.

Asserting that the resignation from assembly was a right of a lawmaker, senior counsel C.A.Sundram appearing for a disqualified MLA K. Sudhakar  said, “I did not leave the party. My intra party matter should not be decided by the Speaker. After I resign, Speaker has no jurisdiction over me.”