NEW DELHI: Ahead of the crucial July 18 floor test in the Karnataka Assembly for the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, the Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on Wednesday on the plea of 15 rebel MLAs seeking a direction to the speaker to accept their resignations.

There was much acrimony between the 15 rebel legislators on one side and speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on the other, with both accusing the other of murdering democracy .

A bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose heard arguments from both sides for nearly four hours and said, “We will pronounce orders at 10.30 am on Wednesday.”

The order will not only have a bearing on the fate of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka but also on the delicate issue of whether the Speaker is sovereign in matters concerning the functioning of the legislature.

Both sides stuck to their stand on Tuesday. The rebel MLAs, through senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi , said, “The coalition government has been reduced to a minority. Yet, the Speaker with mala fide intentions is sitting on the resignations and continuing with disqualification proceedings to coerce the MLAs, who are unwilling to be part of the assembly, to continue as members of the House, be present and vote against the no-confidence motion.

For the Speaker, senior advocates A M Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat argued that the Speaker was a constitutional authority and the SC , in numerous judgments, had accorded high status to him while advising courts not to interfere with the proceedings pending before him.

The CJI-led bench said, “We have the power and jurisdiction to direct floor test in assembly in 24 hours (as it had done last year that paved the way for the Congress-JD(S) alliance to come to power despite the governor inviting BJP to form government as the saffron party was the single largest). We have the power to appoint protem speaker. But you argue that the SC cannot tell the Speaker to decide an issue. Why did the Speaker not render a finding on the resignations? He could have rejected them. What is the use of coming and saying that he is still considering it.”



In Video: Karnataka: CM HD Kumaraswamy to face floor test today