No decision by Speaker in Ktk till Tue:SC, CM says will seek trust vote

In a breather for the beleaguered JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka, the Assembly Speaker was restrained by the Supreme Court till Tuesday from deciding on both the resignation and disqualification of rebel MLAs, as Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in a surprise move Friday announced he would seek a trust voteAs Karnataka headed for a prolonged political uncertainty, BJP sources said the party too has decided to move its MLAs to a resort near Bengaluru amid fears of reverse poaching by the ruling combine after Kumaraswamy’s announcement. The JD(S) MLAs have been also put up in a resort near BengaluruThe court yesterday directed the Speaker to take a decision “forthwith” on the resignation of the 10 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs but Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar later said more time is required for a decision. The Congress had also initiated disqualification proceedings against its rebel MLAs. In all, 16 Congress and JD(S) MLAs have submitted their resignationsThe ruling coalition’s total strength is 116 (Congress-78, JD(S)-37 and BSP-1), besides the Speaker
With the support of the two independents, who Monday resigned from the ministry, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the half-way mark is 113If the resignations of the 16 MLAs are accepted, the coalition’s tally will be reduced to 100Citing “weighty issues that have arisen”, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said the matter will be considered by it on July 16 and status quo as of Friday should be maintainedThe bench specifically mentioned in the order that the Speaker would not decide on the issue of the resignation or the disqualification of the rebel MLAs to enable the court to judge the larger issues raised during the hearing of the matterThe bench noted in its order that the issue of maintainability of the rebel MLAs’ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution was raised by the speaker and KumaraswamyIt said senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, countered the speaker’s submission that the disqualification plea of the ruling coalition in the southern state had to be decided before taking up the issue of resignation of the lawmakersTaking all these aspects and the incomplete facts before it into consideration, there was a need for further hearing, it said
“In view of the weighty issues that have arisen, we are of the view that the matter be considered by us on Tuesday. We are of the view that the status quo as of today with regard to the prevailing situation be maintained. Neither the issue of resignation nor that of disqualification be decided till Tuesday,” the bench said