New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stopped Karnataka’s 17 disqualified MLAs from filing a series of petitions on Thursday, September 12.
The 17 MLAs had sought to list a batch of petitions before the SC that challenged the decision taken by former Karnataka Speaker Ramesh Kumar to disqualify them from the state Assembly. However, the country’s top court has refused to pass an order on the matter.
Addressing senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, Justice N V Ramana asked, “It will come, what is the urgency?”
In response, Dwivedi said that he had sought an order from the court since the case was deleted despite being listed for hearing on September 16.
Two of the disqualified MLAs, Pratapgouda Patil and AH Vishwanath, have filed separate petitions before the SC and have named former CM H D Kumaraswamy, as well as Karnataka Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao, as respondents in the case.
The former legislators’ counsel argued, “The petitioners have a fundamental right under Article 19 to carry on any trade, business and profession. Their right to resign from the post of MLA and carry on any vocation of their choice, including public service, cannot be denied by the Respondent Speaker by a completely illegal and unconstitutional order. The action of the Speaker is thus in violation of the fundamental rights of the Petitioners guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21.”
Dwivedi further argued that the Tenth Schedule meant that the Speaker’s disqualification order was not in conjunction with Rules 6 and 7 of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Rules of 1986.
The legislators, through their counsel, also alleged that the former Speaker had adopted a “pick and choose policy” while disqualifying them.
