The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the plea made by the 17 rebel MLAs from Karnataka, who challenged their disqualification. The disqualified MLAs also requested the Supreme Court to grant an interim stay on the bye-elections slated to be held on October 21. The Election Commission of India has, however, opposed the prayer seeking a stay on bye-polls.
Hearing the petition, a bench comprising of Justices NV Ramana, Krishna Murari and Sanjay Khanna issued notices to the former Karnataka Speaker Ramesh Kumar seeking his response to the plea filed by the disqualified MLAs. The court also issued notices to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao and leader of the Congress Legislature Party – Siddaramaiah, seeking their response on whether a whip was issued by the party before the MLAs were disqualified. The court adjourned the hearing. The next hearing will take place on September 25.
The 17 disqualified MLAs include Pratap Gouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Someshekhar, Byrati Basavraj, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, Shrimant Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatahalli and R Shankar from the Congress and JD(S) legislators AH Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda.
While the Election Commission had on Saturday announced bye-polls to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka, it was yet to announce elections to RR Nagar, the seat of former Congress MLA Munirathna, and Maski, constituency of former Congress MLA Pratapgouda Patil.
The EC’s announcement had come as a setback to the MLAs as then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs until the end of the Karnataka Assembly’s five-year term, thereby preventing them from being able to contest bye-elections. Then Speaker Ramesh Kumar had said that the former MLAs had indulged in anti-party activities.
The 17 rebels had said that they were unhappy with former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s administrative methods and that they were opposed to the Congress-JD(S) alliance. Ten of the 17 rebels had flown to Mumbai in private planes and were staying in the Renaissance Hotel until the vote of confidence was held.
The coalition had accused the BJP of horse-trading and paying crores of rupees to the renegade MLAs in a bid to topple the government. The rebels had tendered their resignations to the Speaker’s office on July 6 and had boarded a private charter plane, which flew them to Mumbai.
After a long discussion on the repercussions of rebels’ actions and the BJP’s alleged role in the rebellion, the coalition failed to pacify their MLAs and HD Kumaraswamy stepped down as the CM after the motion of confidence was lost.