NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the 10 Congress-JD(S) rebel MLAs to appear before the Karnataka Assembly Speaker at 6 pm today and convey the decision of their resignation to him.

The SC direction came after the rebel MLAs filed a petition in the court on Wednesday alleging that Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar was not accepting their resignations deliberately.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Karnataka Assembly Speaker to decide on the resignation of the MLAs during the course of the day. The apex court said the decision taken by the Speaker has to be intimated on Friday when the court takes up the matter again.

The top court further ordered the DGP of Karnataka to provide adequate security to all the rebel MLAs on their arrival in Bengaluru from Mumbai.

In the petition, the MLAs had alleged that the Speaker was protecting the government which is in minority now. They stated that the Assembly Session is to be begin from July 12, the same day that the MLA's have been asked to appear person before the Speaker, which showed the "intent of the Speaker to disqualify the petitioners in a prejudged manner".

The MLAs further said that their resignations were in consonance with the rules and the provisions of the Constitution.

The state Assembly Speaker had held on Tuesday that the resignations of nine out of 14 rebel MLAs were not in order.

Thirteen MLAs -- 10 of the Congress and three of the JD(S) -- submitted their resignation to the Speaker's office on July 6 triggering a fresh political crisis in the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state. Another Congress MLA R Roshan Baig resigned on Tuesday.

(With agency inputs)

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