Hours after the Top Court directed rebel MLAs to meet Assembly Speaker, the political tussle in Karnataka on Thursday took a new turn with Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar showing no mood to take an early decision on the resignation.
After meeting the rebel MLAs, KR Ramesh Kumar said he would require to go through the resignations in detailed scrutiny. He added that MLAs submitted their resignation in a prescribed format in the Office.
‘I will go through them and decide after I hear them personally’, he told reporters after meeting the MLAs.
While earlier in the day he moved to the Top Court seeking more time to a decision on the resignation of MLAs.
In an application to the Apex Court, Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar asserted that he needs to and enquiry “for ascertaining whether the resignation is voluntary and genuine”.
“It is only after such inquiry/process that the satisfaction of the Speaker can be reached…Several of the resignations are not in accordance with Rule 202 of the Rules and Procedure of Conduct of Business in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. It is thus respectfully submitted that the enquiry so contemplated cannot be completed today itself,” reads the application filed by the Karnataka Assembly Speaker in the Top Court.
He added, ‘I need to examine these resignations (of rebel MLAs) all night and ascertain if they are genuine’.
READ: Karnataka Crisis: SC directs 10 rebel MLAs to appear before Assembly Speaker; Speaker moves SC seeking more time
Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar: I need to examine these resignations (of rebel MLAs) all night and ascertain if they are genuine. pic.twitter.com/cLZY5Jk8cn
— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2019
While earlier in the day, the Supreme Court directed all the 10 rebel MLAs to appear before the Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar in the evening. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the Disgruntled Lawmakers, said, ‘The Court has accepted the requested, ALl 10 Lawmakers of Congress and JD-S will appear before the Assembly Speaker at 6 pm’.
The Top Court said they can submit their resignation if they wish when they Assembly Speaker.
The Rebels moved to the Top Court alleging that Assembly Speaker is not performing his constitutional duty and deliberately delaying the acceptance of their resignations submitted with him since Saturday.
It should be noted that the Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had on Tuesday said that out of all the 13 Resignations submitted only 5 are in the correct format. While the rest of the remaining Eight are not in the correct format. He asked the MLAs to submit the resignation again properly.
The 13-months old coalition government suffered a huge setback on Saturday when 11 MLAs from Congress–JD(S) ruling coalition tendered their resignation. And thereafter political episode and drama started in Karnataka.
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