Will get justice in Supreme Court, says disqualified K'taka MLA Patil

Pratap Gowda Patil, one of the rebel Congress MLA who was disqualified by Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday along with 13 others, said he is confident of getting justice in Supreme Court.

"My dear voters and my people of Maski assembly constituency, I assure you of getting justice in Supreme Court after Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar disqualified us from the assembly. No need to worry, we will get justice in SC soon," said Pratap Gowda Patil.

Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday disqualified with immediate effect 14 rebel MLAs, days after the Congress-JD(S) government collapsed after losing the confidence motion. This is in addition to the three dissident MLAs he had disqualified on July 25.

With the significant development, a total of 17 rebel MLAs from both parties have been disqualified by the Speaker. All the disqualified MLAs cannot contest elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly.

Out of the 14 MLAs, 11 of them are from Congress. The disqualified legislators include -- Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Shivanand Hebbar, ST Somashekar, Shrimant Patil, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj.

The three MLAs disqualified are JD(S) include -- AH Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda and Gopalaiah.

"They had sought a time of four weeks. We had given notice to them but they did not come and meet me," Kumar told reporters at a press conference here.

On Thursday, three rebel Congress MLAs -- R Shankar, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli were disqualified by the Speaker, stating that they have "incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) and the disqualification would last till the end of the term of the Assembly May 23, 2023."

These MLAs are barred from contesting the by-elections as well. These three MLAs will move the Supreme Court on Monday to challenge the Kumar's decision to disqualify them under the anti-defection law.