Karnataka crisis: Supreme Court likely to hear rebel MLAs tomorrow

The apex court said it was likely to hear the matter on Thursday.

A bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, said, we would hear the matter likely tomorrow.

Senior Advocate and noted legal expert, Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the matter before the CJI bench for an urgent hearing on behalf of the MLAs.

The ten MLAs had moved the apex court and mentioned the matter and said that the state Assembly Speaker was not accepting their resignations, and thereby the top court should intervene and hear the matter on an urgent manner. 

In a major development, senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar, who flew down to Mumbai, was stopped from entering the Renaissance Hotel in the city where the rebel Karnataka lawmakers are staying.

According to media reports, the rebels had wrote to the city police for protection from DK Shivakumar.

Speaking to the media, Shivakumar said he had booked a room in the hotel as his friends were staying in it.

He said there was no question of 'threatening'.

Supporters of JD(S) leader Narayan Gowda gathered outside the hotel in Powai and started shouting ‘Go back, go back’, as soon as Congress leader DK Shivakumar arrived, reported Hindustan Times.

The police escorted Shivakumar away from the hotel.

Taking a tough stance against rebel Congress MLAs, the Congress Legislaltive Party (CLP) in Karnataka decided to file a petition with Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar to disqualify the 10 party legislators who had resigned from their MLA seats under the Anti-Defection law.

This decision was made after the CLP meeting was held at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, CLP leader Siddaramaiah said that the meeting has decided to petition before the Speaker to disqualify the 10 party legislators under 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

"Speaker is the supreme power. That is why we are making this petition requesting him to Act as per Constitution," he said.

The 10 rebel MLAs, who are currently in Mumbai, did not attend the CLP meeting despite party had issued a whip. A few others including Raje Gowda, Khaneej Fathima, Tukaram, B Nagendra, Ramappa, MTB Nagaraj, D Sudhakar also did not attend the meeting but had taken prior permission from the CLP leader and the party.

If the Speaker decides to invoke the provisions of the law, the 10 legislators would be barred from contesting elections for six years and from holding any other office under the law.

The 13-month JDS-Congress coalition government in Karnataka has plunged into a major crisis after 13 rebel MLAs that included 10 from Congress and 3 from JDS had tendered resignation to their MLA posts. The crisis faced by the government compounded when two Independent MLAs who were recently made ministers, also withdrew their support to the government virtually pushing it to minority status.