Mukul Rohatgi, the counsel for the 17 disqualified MLAs of Karnataka was asked to approach the registrar of the Supreme Court in case it needs an urgent hearing
Bengaluru: As the wait for the Supreme Court to take up the hearing of the case related to 17 rebel MLAs from Karnataka (both JDS and Congress) got longer, Mukul Rohatgi, the rebel MLAs’ lawyer approached the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing today (August 13).
When Rohatgi approached a bench headed by justice Arun Mishra seeking an urgent hearing on August 19, he asked the senior counsel to approach the court registrar and submit a memo in this regard.
These rebel MLAs were disqualified by the then Speaker Ramesh Kumar just days before BS Yediyurappa, the current chief minister was supposed to take up the trust vote.
Much before this, the then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy proposed to take up a trust vote on the floor of the house. But as the proceedings began, the government, knowing fully well that it would go on to lose, filibustered with the hope that the disgruntled MLAs would change their mind.
Ultimately, when the motion was put to vote, Kumaraswamy-led coalition government garnered 99-105.
After Yediyurappa was sworn in and the budget was passed, Ramesh Kumar resigned and a new Speaker was elected.
On the issue of disqualifications, the rebel MLAs have sought the top court to quash the order of the then Speaker and have termed it “illegal, mala fide and arbitrary”.
They have questioned the Speaker as to how he arrived at the decision that their resignations were not voluntary.
In its earlier order on the issue of disqualified MLAs, the Supreme Court had held that these rebel MLAs should not be compelled to attend the proceeding in the house.
These MLAs had been camping at a hotel in Mumbai till the point Kumaraswamy’s trust motion was put to vote.
The tenth schedule of the Indian Constitution deals with the concept of disqualification of MLAs.
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