New Delhi, July 15: As Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy prepares for a floor test to prove government's majority in the state assembly, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up the pleas of five more rebel Karnataka MLAs who alleged that they were "being threatened to support the government on the threat of disqualification" apart from the collective petition submitted by the 10 rebel MLAs holed up in Mumbai, tomorrow.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submission of senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, that they be also made parties to the pending petition, which is to be heard on Tuesday. Five more rebel Congress MLAs from Karnataka have moved the apex court on July 13 against the Speaker not accepting their resignations. Those who moved the court are Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraju, Roshan Baig and Munirathna. The plea filed by the 5 MLAs said, that despite submitting their resignations at different dates to the Karnataka Assembly speaker, he was not accepting the same. Last week, a group of 10 rebel Congress-Janata Dal Secular legislators who sent their resignation letters last week had approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday, complaining that Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar was slipping up on his constitutional duty and delaying acceptance of their letters. On Friday, while hearing a petition by 10 rebel MLAs, a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi ordered the Speaker to maintain status quo and said: "Neither the issue of resignation nor disqualification will be decided. This is being done to enable the court to decide on the larger issue."