#Karnataka: 10 Rebel MLAs to Meet Assembly Speaker Today as per SC Order

Bangalore, July 11: 10 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka are meeting the Assembly Speaker today at 6 pm as per the order of the Supreme Court. The MLAs will convey their decision to resign. 

 

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Karnataka Assembly Speaker to decide on the resignation of the MLAs during the course of the day. The bench, also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the decision taken by the Speaker has to be intimated tomorrow when the court takes up the matter again. The Supreme Court has also directed the Karnataka Director General of Police to provide protection to the MLAs. 

Karnataka Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy has said that he will not resign despite 18 MLAs withdrawing their support to his government. The 10 MLAs include Pratap Gauda Patil, Ramesh Jarkhiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, B.C. Patil, S. T. Somashekhar, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, Mahesh Kumathalli, K. Gopalaiah, A. H. Vishwanath and Narayan Gauda. The rebel MLAs had moved apex court yesterday alleging that the Speaker was not accepting their resignations.

 

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Assembly Speaker moved the Supreme Court saying that he would be unable to verify whether all the resignations are authentic and voluntary within the time limit stipulated by the Court. However, the Supreme Court has declined the plea saying that it will be heard tomorrow.