After taking fresh resignations from the 10 rebel MLAs on Thursday evening, Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar said that he will need time to scrutinize the papers to verify if they are in order over the next few days.
“I have heard them and have directed them to give arguments in writing,” the Speaker said. After rejecting most of the resignation letters for not being in the ‘proper format’, the Speaker said all resignations are now in order.
The Speaker also said: “You cannot expect me to work at lightning speed. I have to go through the procedure as per the constitution. I need to examine these resignations all night and ascertain if they are genuine.”
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that the 10 rebel Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) lawmakers should meet the Karnataka Assembly speaker, KR Ramesh Kumar, at 6 pm in his office.
In addition, the bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, also ordered the speaker to take a call on the resignations by end of day and place his decision before the bench by tomorrow morning.
The order of the bench came after the 10 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) alliance, wrote to the court asking for an intervention. The petition filed by them said that the speaker had adopted a ‘delaying tactic’ to prolong the life of the ‘minority government’ in the House. “The speaker’s tactic to delay their resignation was anti-democratic and a violation of the basic structure,” read the petition, which was heard by the top court on Thursday.
The bench also responded to their concerns regarding security by stating that the legislators could request protection from the Karnataka police chief and said that they could intimate their decision to resign to speaker Ramesh Kumar.
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Chief Justice Gogoi said, “the order of the speaker will be placed before us tomorrow.”
Much drama ensued yesterday when Congress leader and trouble shooter DK Shivakumar flew in to Mumbai to try and negotiate with the 10 MLAs. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed inside the hotel, even as much drama was staged outside the premises of the Renaissance Hotel, Powai, Mumbai.
Finally, because of the imposition of Section 144, Shivakumar was detained by the Mumbai police and then taken to the airport to eventually fly out to Bengaluru.
In all, 16 legislators of the ruling Congress-JDS coalition have resigned from the assembly. BJP is now hopeful of forming the government in the state.
Earlier, the speaker was accused of purposefully delaying the acceptance of the resignation letters in order to ‘help’ the Kumaraswamy government.
Meanwhile, according to reports, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is likely to announce the resignation of the 13- month old JD(S)-Congress coalition ministry after the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The CM has called for a Cabinet meeting, and is expected to convey his decision.
Also, Karnataka speaker, KR Ramesh Kumar had moved the Supreme Court seeking more time to deal with the resignation issue of the rebel MLAs. However, the Supreme Court refused to give a hearing in the matter.
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