SC directs 10 rebel K'taka MLAs to appear before Speaker this evening

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the 10 rebel MLAs of Karnataka to appear before Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar in the evening for which they will be provided with police protection when they land in Bengaluru from Mumbai.

Ten Congress and JD(S) MLAs had earlier moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to accept their resignation and not proceed with the applications for their disqualification from the House.

"The court has accepted the request of the 10 MLAs, who had resigned, to appear before the Speaker at 6 pm today, which means that they will fly from Mumbai to Bengaluru," senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared on behalf of the dissident legislators before a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, told reporters.

He said that the Speaker will pass an order on the resignation issue and it will be placed before the court tomorrow.

"The case will come up tomorrow for hearing and the Director General of Police (DGP), Karnataka, has been directed to provide proper police protection to all the 10 MLAs when they land in Bengaluru and go to the Speaker's office," the former attorney general said.

Ten dissident legislators of Congress and JD(S) are currently staying at a hotel in Mumbai.

Rohatgi clarified that the order is applicable only to the 10 MLAs, while adding that the other disgruntled Karnataka legislators can also move the apex court.

"The importance is that the Speaker will hear these 10 MLAs and pass an order, for which we had made a request to the court," he added.

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.