SC cannot give direction to Speaker on resignation of MLAs: Singhvi

Hours after the Supreme Court directed the 10 rebel MLAs to appear before speaker K R Ramesh Kumar in the evening, the Congress contended in the court that it cannot give such a direction to the Speaker.

Raising the matter before the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi in the afternoon, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said "Such a direction, asking the Speaker to decide on the resignation of ten rebels, cannot be issued by the Supreme Court."

He said a decision on the resgination fell within the purview of the Speaker under the anti-defection law and that power cannot be curtailed or abridged.

He said the court has posted matter along with the main petition tomorrow morning.

The Court, in the morning, allowed the rebel MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S) in Karnataka to appear before the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly at 6 pm today to tender their resignations. The Speaker is required to decide on the resignations today itself.

The order was passed by a bench headed by the Chief Justice.

Yesterday, ten rebel MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S) in Karnataka had knocked the doors of the apex court challenging the delay by the Speaker of the State Assembly in accepting their resignations.

These ten dissident legislators are currently staying at a hotel in Mumbai.

The 13-month-old Congress-JDS government had on Saturday slumped into crisis following the resignation of MLAs. The 225-member state Assembly includes one nominated MLA. The halfway mark is 113.