BENGALURU: Former Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Wednesday expressed "sigh of relief" as the Supreme Court upheld his decision to disqualify 17 Congress- JD(S) MLAs.
"I am Citizen of India, we all have to obey the orders of Supreme Court," the Srinivasapura Congress MLA said.
"Supreme Court has upheld the disqualification- to that extent, it's a sigh of relief (for me). On the issue of tenure (of disqualification), Supreme Court has not agreed to my interpretation I will speak on that after going through the text of the judgement," he further added.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, he has gone by the tenth schedule, keeping in mind the political and constitutional morality.
"I am of the clear opinion they have been disqualified from the members of the 15th assembly of Karnataka legislature which has the term up to 2023," he said.
"The legal pandits and other people working on that should apply their mind and talk about it, I cannot comment about the Judgement passed by the Supreme Court . I am neither happy nor unhappy, neither I am petitioner nor respondent, I have delivered the judgement by the virtue of my office as a speaker," Kumar said.
"I am not happy over disqualification nor unhappy that they were allowed to contest, I take a neutral stand in this regard," he concluded.
The apex court on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka on orders of the Speaker but allowed them to contest the December 5 bypolls in the state.
The court struck down the portion of the order of Kumar by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka Assembly in 2023.
In July this year, 17 MLAs were disqualified by Kumar based on the complaint of Congress and JD(S) after their absence and resignation from the assembly during the trust vote leading to the collapse of then H D Kumaraswamy-led government.
Kumaraswamy was leading a Congress-JDS coalition government.
Kumar had disqualified the legislators, ruling that those disqualified cease to be MLAs with immediate effect till the expiry of the 15th assembly (in 2023).
(With ENS Inputs)