The rebel lawmakers have accused the Speaker of abandoning his constitutional duty and deliberately delaying acceptance of their resignations.
Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. (File Photo: IANS)
Day after Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar dismissed resignations of eight rebel lawmakers as “faulty”, the Congress and JD(S) MLAs on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court accusing the Speaker of abandoning his constitutional duty and deliberately delaying acceptance of their resignations.
The apex court will hear the matter on Thursday.
Amidst worsening political crisis, Karnataka Speaker KR said that out of the 13 lawmakers who submitted their resignations, eight have not done it in the correct format as per the guidelines of the Karnataka Assembly Act.
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The Speaker further said the remaining five have been given two days time to meet him. He said he will meet two of the members on July 12 after the Assembly session and the remaining three after July 15.
Read | 8 out of 13 resignations ‘faulty’, says Karnataka Speaker, gives rebel MLAs time to meet him
Kumar also wrote to the Governor stating that none of the rebel MLAs met him after submitting their resignations.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kumar had said that he will act according to the law.
“I have certain rules. I’ll go by that. Then decision will be taken. I have to be responsible. Certain things in law are implied. Office of Speaker should behave responsibly. No time-frame is mentioned there,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
Kumar added that the “clause says if the Speaker is convinced that the resignations are voluntary and genuine, he can accept otherwise. I do not know, I am not a well-read man. I have to see”.
A total of 16 MLAs have resigned from the ruling alliance – 11 from Congress and three from JD (S) by Saturday and two more, including one Independent on Monday.
In a bid to save the 13-month-old coalition government, all 30 Karnataka ministers of the alliance have put in their papers to allow a Cabinet reshuffle.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar, who had gone to Mumbai to meet the rebel leaders, was stopped outside the gates of the Renaissance Hotel where the MLAs are put up.
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