5 more rebel MLAs move Apex court against Speaker

Bengaluru: In yet another twist to the current political turmoil in the state, five more Karnataka Congress MLAs moved the Supreme Court on Saturday, contending they had resigned voluntarily and that their resignation must be accepted by the Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.

The petition, filed by Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraju, Munirathna and Roshan Baig of the Congress party, has sought a direction to the Speaker to not proceed with the application for their disqualification, informed sources.

The petition stated, “The disqualification proceedings are being used to threaten and intimidate the MLAs. On one hand, the Speaker is not acting upon the resignation and on the other, a whip has been issued threatening disqualification for failure to attend the legislature proceeding starting July 12.”

The 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) government slumped into crisis following the resignation of 10 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly on July 6.