Supreme Court will hear the petition on October 23

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred the hearing on the petition filed by 17 rebel Karnataka Congress-JD(S) MLAs, challenging their disqualification under the anti-defection law, to October 23.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana rendered the order. As the by-polls to 15 Karnataka seats are slated for December, the MLAs had requested for an interim order to allow them to contest the elections.

The seats had fallen vacant after they were disqualified and debarred from being a member of the legislative assembly by former speaker Ramesh Kumar earlier this year.

Earlier the elections were scheduled to take place on October 21 but were deferred to December 5 by the Election Commission.