Welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision on the 15 rebel MLAs, the Congress on Wednesday charged the BJP of indulging in a ‘false propaganda’ about its victory.
Adressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Congress spokesperson and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi
said, ‘ I wonder which victory BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa is celebrating. The Court has clearly said that the Assembly Speaker has right to accept or reject resignations of rebel MLAs and also has the right to declare them diqualified. Now, the Speaker will be the master of proceedings and the apex court has said it can not interfere in the Assembly Speaker’s jurisdiction.’
‘The Speaker can take decision according to his own wisdom,’ he said.
‘Today’s decision is not about politics but it is about law,’ the Congress spokesperson said.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, said the rebel MLAs
cannot be compelled to sit in the House during proceedings.
‘In effect, they will not be disqualified if they do not obey their party whip during the trust vote taken by the HD Kumaraswamy government,’Singhvi said.
. The Apex Court also said that Karnataka Assembly Speaker cannot be
compelled to take a decision within a limited time frame with respect to resignations of
15 rebel MLAs.
It also said that larger question raised in the case on the role of Speaker could be answered at
later stage but interim order is required to maintain Constitutional balance.
The Top Court on Tuesday heard detailed arguments from senior lawyer Mukul Rohatagi,
appearing for 15 rebel MLAs, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi for Speaker, and Dr Rajeev
Dhawan for Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
The rebel MLAs had told the Apex Court that the Congress-JD(S) coalition
government has lost majority and Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar by keeping their
resignations hanging is attempting to prolong a Government which has been reduced to minority.