New Delhi: The Supreme Court and the Karnataka Speaker are heading for a confrontation on Wednesday even as the rebel Congress MLAs were trying to pull down the coalition government of H D Kumaraswamy.
The Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose adjourned the case after a day-long hearing on Tuesday, fixing 10.30 AM on Wednesday, first thing in the morning, to give its orders on the plea of the rebel MLAs, a day before the scheduled floor test in the Assembly as sought by the CM.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, sought revocation of the Court’s status quo order to let he decide on both disqualification and resignations on Wednesday.
He pointed out that all disqualification proceedings for defiance of the whip were prior to resignations and that ought to be decided first.
Since July 1, 16 Congress and Janata Dal(Secular) MLAs have submitted resignations, reducing the ruling coalition’s strength to 101 as against the BJP''s 105 plus two independents in the 224-member House.
Disqualification of all 16 and acceptance of their resignations will still leave BJP with six votes more to bring down the government.
The Bench agreed to pronounce orders on Wednesday on the rebel MLAs’ plea to exempt them from the trust vote on Thursday as it would help them avoid the disqualification.
Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for 15 Congress MLAs, accused the Speaker trying for survival of the government that has lost the majority and ought to go. He told the Court that the Speaker was coercing them to vote for the Kumaraswamy government by not accepting their resignations.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the CM, however, asserted that "the MLAs were hunting in a pack to destabilise his government." Singhvi argued that resignations cannot be an escape route to avoid disqualifications.
"Suppose there is a floor test tomorrow and an MLA wants to resign today which will lead to the government falling. That resignation is itself disqualification since it is against the party’s interests," he argued.
"Why can’t you decide on the resignations," CJI Gogoi asks. "I am. I am in fact looking at both resignations and disqualification holistically. I am doing better," Singhvi asked. “Then decide the resignations," CJI Gogoi says. The discussion moves on to the Supreme Court’s power to interfere with the Speaker''s powers.
"Last year we ordered Speaker in Karnataka to conduct floor test in 24 hours. You did not object to it then because it went in your favour," CJI Gogoi observed on SC’s power to give directions to Speaker.
