Following a few raps on the knuckles form the Supreme Court, the Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar has sought time till Wednesday to  decide on the resignation and disqualification of rebel Congress-JDS MLAs.

“What stopped the Speaker from deciding their resignation? Speaker could have termed them as involuntary but why didn’t he decide within 24 hours and take a call on disqualification? This Court ordered a floor test within 24 hours, appointed a pro tem Speaker, where’s the issue of jurisdiction?” the court asked the counsel for the speaker.

The rebel MLAs who had petitioned the Supreme Court to get Assembly Speaker to quickly decide on their resignations told the Supreme Court today that they could not be forced to attend the assembly for the trust vote scheduled this Thursday if they do not want to go.

The Congress’ ploy, senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi told a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, was to issue a whip ordering them to vote in the assembly and later disqualify them if they disobey.

“The game is to issue a new whip and argue Supreme Court’s (status quo) order was limited to the previous whip… The idea is to overreach the court’s protection” said Rohatgi, who is a former attorney general, said.

–India Legal Bureau