10 rebel Congress, JD(S) MLAs of Karnataka move SC

Ten rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs of Karnataka on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignation and not to proceed with the applications for their disqualification from the House.

The plea was mentioned before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Rajan Gogoi by former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi who appeared on behalf of the MLAs.

The apex court is likely to hear the matter tomorrow.

The petition. filed by seven Congress and three JD(S) MLAs. sought a direction to the Speaker to accept their resignation and restrain him from proceeding with the applications moved for their disqualification from the House.

Rohatgi contended before the court that the Speaker was "deliberately delaying" the acceptance of the resignation of the MLAs.

The petition accused the Speaker of abandoning his constitutional duty.

The plea was filed by Pratap Gouda Patil, Ramesh Jarkhiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, B C Patil, S T Somashekar, Arbail Sivaram Hebbar and Mahesh Kumathalli from Congress and K Gopalaiah, H D Vishwanath and Narayan Gowda from JD(S).

The 13-month-old Congress-JDS government had slumped into crisis following the resignation of MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly on Saturday.