Karnataka: Disqualified Rebel MLAs To Challenge Speaker's Decision In Supreme Court

All the 14 Karnataka rebel legislators, who were disqualified by Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar said they would challenge the Speaker's decision in the Supreme Court on Monday.

Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar. ANI Photo

New Delhi: As speaker of Karnataka Assembly K R Ramesh Kumar disqualified a number of rebel MLAs on Sunday for defying their party whips to attend the House on July 23, all 14 of them said that they would challenge  his decision in the Supreme Court. The rebel MLAs said they would challenge their disqualification in the Supreme Court as their joint petitions had sought its directive for accepting forthwith their resignations re-submitted on July 11 before the Congress and the JD-S issued a whip to them to attend the session on July 23 and long before former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy moved the confidence motion on July 18. Rebel JDS MLA A H Vishwanath, who was disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker on Sunday, said the decision was "against the law" and he and other aggrieved legislators would approach the Supreme Court for redressal on Monday. A day before the trust vote on the B.S. Yediyurappa government in the Karnataka Assembly, the Speaker disqualified 14 rebel MLAs of the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) for defying their party whips to attend the House on July 23, when former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy put the confidence motion to vote for proving majority, but failed to do. In Bengaluru, another disqualified rebel MLA from Maski, Pratap Gowda Patil, asked the voters in a video message not to panic and said they were confident of emerging victorious in the Supreme Court. "Dear voters and my well wishers, Speaker has orderedmy disqualification from the assembly... there is no need to panic, we are challenging this in the Supreme Court. I'm confident that we will be victorious in the court," Patil said. (with inputs from agencies)