The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the speaker of the Karnataka Assembly cannot be compelled to take a decision on the resignations of 15 MLAs within a time frame. The Supreme Court also ruled that the 15 MLAs cannot be compelled to participate in proceedings of the assembly till the speaker decides on their resignations.
The Supreme Court noted the “larger legal questions” related to the speaker's actions need to be decided at a later stage.
The Supreme Court order comes a day before the H.D. Kumaraswamy government is due to face a vote of confidence in the Karnataka Assembly.
The pleas of the rebel MLAs were heard by a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.
The Supreme Court was hearing the pleas of a total of 15 MLAs, belonging to the Congress and JD(S), who had resigned from the Karnataka Assembly since July 1. Their resignations had plunged the H.D. Kumaraswamy government into a crisis, with the BJP declaring that the ruling coalition had lost its majority. The Kumaraswamy government faces certain collapse if the speaker accepts the resignations.
The 15 MLAs had filed pleas in the Supreme Court separately last week, alleging that Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar had not acted on their resignations. On July 11, 11 of the 'rebel' MLAs appeared before Kumar to submit their resignations after being directed to do so by the Supreme Court. On July 12, the Supreme Court issued an interim order to Kumar not to proceed with action on the resignations of the MLAs or initiate disqualification proceedings against them until it heard the case on Tuesday.
During the hearing in the case on Tuesday, lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, arguing for the rebel MLAs, said the speaker was attempting to initiate disqualification proceedings against the legislators in a bid to coerce them to continue supporting the Kumaraswamy government. Rohatgi said the speaker's inaction obstructed the MLAs' right to resign.
Both Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the speaker, and Rajeev Dhawan, arguing for Kumaraswamy, emphasised the speaker had to evaluate the resignations of the MLAs to assess that they were genuine. Singhvi assured the speaker would decide on the resignations and disqualification procedures against the MLAs on Wednesday. Dhawan had also argued that the MLAs were “hunting in a pack” with the motive of bringing down the Kumaraswamy government.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court observed that it had given a “very high status” to the speaker while interpreting the anti-defection law decades ago and “probably that needs a re-look after so many years”.
