The wait for Karnataka’s 17 disqualified MLAs for a hearing in the Supreme Court seems to be getting longer as their writ petitions against the then Speaker’s decision, scheduled to come up for consideration on September 11, got deleted.
A bench of Justices N V Ramana and Ajay Rastogi was to take up the batch of petitions on September 11. However, a final update on the Supreme Court’s website showed that the batch of petition was removed from the list of cases.
A counsel connected to the matter said the petitioners may mention the matter again on Wednesday, seeking urgent listing. The reasons for deletion of the case was immediately unknown. It was the rebellion by these disqualified MLAs that led to the fall of the JDS-Congress government and subsequent installing of BJP in power in Karnataka.
All of them were disqualified by then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, who also declared them as ineligible to be legislators again for the term of the 15th Assembly. All 17 disqualified MLAs had filed the writ petitions. Since then, they made numerous attempts to get the matter listed before a bench by mentioning the matter before a bench led by Justice Ramana.
