NEW DELHI: All eyes will be on the Supreme Court on Wednesday when it pronounces its order on the pleas of 15 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs seeking a direction to Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignations.
The fate of the 13-month-old coalition government, led by H D Kumaraswamy, largely hinges on the court orders.
The day-long hearing before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi concluded after high-voltage arguments by the lawyers for rebel MLAs, the Speaker and CM H D Kumaraswamy.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the MLAs, asked the bench to continue with its interim order directing the Speaker to maintain status quo on the issue of resignations and disqualification of the MLAs.
“It is my right to do what I want to do. The Speaker is infringing on that right,” he said. Citing the case of Umesh Jadhav, Rohtagi said, “He resigned as MLA on March 20 when his disqualification was pending. The Speaker accepted his resignation on April 1, so it isn’t as if the Speaker has always considered that disqualification needs to be decided first.”
The counsel asked the bench to exempt the 15 rebel MLAs from appearing in the Assembly on the basis of the whip issued by the coalition which, he said, has been reduced to a minority.
“If I don’t want to be an MLA, you cannot force me to be one. Moreover, acceptance of resignation is based on one criterion alone — whether it is voluntary or genuine,” Rohtagi said.
“This is a government which has lost majority and the Speaker only wants to prop up a government which is in minority,” he added.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Speaker, questioned the jurisdiction of the court saying, “The Speaker can’t be asked to decide on resignations in a time bound-manner like this.”
To this, the CJI remarked, “Where were the questions of jurisdiction of this court when it appointed even a pro-tem Speaker? You didn’t say anything then because it suited you?” The bench was referring to the 2018 midnight hearing when the court had ordered BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa to take the floor test.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, told the court that it had no jurisdiction to pass the two interim orders asking the Speaker to decide and, later, to maintain status quo on the resignations and disqualification of the rebel MLAs. He argued that the Speaker cannot be compelled to decide on this issue in a time-bound manner.
He also told the Supreme Court that the rebel MLAs were “hunting in a pack” to destabilise the government and that the court should not have entertained their petitions.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Speaker, argued that the Speaker will decide on both disqualifications and resignations of the MLAs by Wednesday, but that the court should modify its earlier order asking him to maintain status quo.
He also said that a valid resignation should be submitted to the Speaker personally and the MLAs appeared before him only on July 11.
However, Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the MLAs, countered and said, “There is nothing to show the rebel MLAs conspired with BJP and the disqualification proceeding was nothing but an efffort to scuttle the resignation of MLAs.”
This led the bench to intervene. “You both (Speaker and MLAs) have weighty points to consider and we will do the balancing.”