The Supreme Court asked the Karnataka Assembly speaker on Friday to maintain status quo on the resignation and disqualification of 10 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi posted the matter for further hearing on July 16 and said that the Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar would neither decide the issue of resignation nor that of the disqualification of the rebel MLAs to enable the court to decide the larger issues raised during the hearing of the matter.
Further, the bench noted that senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, had countered the speaker’s submission that the disqualification plea of the ruling coalition in the southern state had to be decided before taking up the issue of resignation of the lawmakers.
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Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday said, in the Karnataka assembly, he would seek a trust vote and asked Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to fix the time for it.
“I am ready for everything and am not here to cling to power… Have decided to seek trust vote, please fix time for it,” Kumaraswamy said in Assembly.
Since July 6, 16 MLAs from the coalition have put in their papers. If accepted, it will push the ruling alliance into a minority in the 224-member assembly.