Five more rebel MLAs move SC against Assembly Speaker

Amid the move to win back some of the disgruntled MLAs, five more rebel legislators from Karnataka on Saturday approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to decide on their resignations.

MLAs – K Sudhakar, Roshan Baig, M T B Nagaraj, Muniratna and Anand Singh – have filed an impleadment application in the writ petition filed by 10 other MLAs. They submitted they were identically placed with 10 others MLAs in whose case, the top court had ordered status quo on Friday.

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They claimed that the actions of Speaker in not accepting their resignation were in violation of their fundamental right. They said an elaborate enquiry was not contemplated in the present scenario as they submitted their resignation much earlier and voluntarily.

When the MLA himself stated his resignation is voluntary and when he submits it was under his signature, there was no further scope for inquiry, they said.

“It is extremely pertinent to state that there were no disqualification proceedings against the said members as on the date of the resignation. Therefore, there is absolutely no ground to deny the said right of the resignation on the ground of pendency of disqualification proceedings. The said resignation cannot be invalidated by filing disqualification proceedings subsequently,” their plea stated.

They contended that when some of them sought to submit their resignation on July 10 to the Speaker, they were “manhandled within the Assembly and confined”.

“So much so that they were rescued by the police personnel from within the Legislative Assembly,” they submitted in a joint application supported by their affidavit.

They also maintained that the disqualification proceedings were being used to threaten and intimidate the MLAs. They said after the CM H D Kumaraswamy's announcement for floor test, and despite having resigned, they were being threatened to support the government or they will be disqualified.

“The applicants apprehend that they will be disqualified while their resignations are kept pending,” they alleged.

In their application, the MLAs said, “ Any elected Member of the Legislature is entitled, in consultation with his conscience or other attendant circumstances to resign his membership of the Legislature. It is stated that the MLAs wish to resign acting in accordance with their conscience, voluntarily. The right to resign from their office is their fundamental right to so as a citizen and as a public representative.”

The rebel MLAs also submitted that the non-attendance of the Legislature party meeting outside the house, as claimed by the Congress party, does not amount to a ground for disqualification.

“To obviate any other doubts, the applicants are also filing affidavits along with the present application stating that they have resigned voluntarily and their resignations may be accepted,” they said.