Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP) 

Bengaluru, Oct 26: Hearing into the petitions filed by disqualified legislators from Karnataka against the Speaker's order concluded in the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday October 25. The SC has reserved its orders in the case. 

The three-judge bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that it would come out with its judgement after ten days. 

Senior advocate, Kapil Sibal, arguing on behalf of former Assembly Speaker, K R Ramesh Kumar, strongly justified the action of the Speaker in disqualifying the 17 legislators who had resigned. He alleged that these legislators had aimed at toppling of the government and they had violated the whip issued by their respective parties. Therefore he insisted that the Speaker was right in disqualifying them from contesting the Assembly election.

 
File photo

Sibal pointed out that after tendering their resignations, rebel legislators were seen in the company of BJP MLAs and leaders. He also specifically mentioned the name of current deputy chief minister of Karnataka, Ashwath Narayan. 

"If the government was not responding to their demands, these MLAs had the option of directly approaching the voters and explaining to them the injustice suffered by them. Instead, they travelled to Mumbai in a private aircraft. Why did they do that?" he wondered. He also drew the attention of the court to the fact that the BJP government in Maharashtra had extended protection to the disqualified legislators during their stay in Mumbai. "When crime happens inside the House, the Speaker alone has the right to award punishment. Resignation by 17 legislators is a constitutional crime. The Speaker cannot keep quiet when people try to topple the government," Sibal argued. 

When Sibal said that acceptance or otherwise of resignations by legislators should be issue-based, the court pointed out that the Speaker, who has constitutional powers, had said in the application filed against the MLAs that effort to destabilize the government had been undertaken. As per rules, he is expected to remain neutral, it pointed out. 

During the arguments on behalf the legislators on Thursday, solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, had termed rejection of resignations by the then Speaker, Ramesh Kumar with the condition that they cannot fight the election for the 15th assembly as a blunder. He also opined that the case can also be referred back to the Speaker for reconsideration. 

14 Congress MLAs and three JD(S) legislators had resigned from their Assembly memberships, and the Speaker had disqualified them. The government had crashed, as the resigned MLAs did not participate in voting during the floor test.