The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the 15 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka could not be compelled to join Thursday’s scheduled trust vote, a setback for the HD Kumaraswamy government. The court also left Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar free to decide on their resignations, setting no deadline for him.

The hearing

The order followed a hearing of a little over three hours on Tuesday before a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, which reserved its verdict at the end. Kumaraswamy’s side said the rebels were “hunting in a pack” to topple his government, while the rebels argued that the Speaker was trying to keep alive a government that had lost its majority. There were sharp exchanges between the judges and the Speaker’s counsel. The Speaker urged the court to show self-restraint and avoid interim orders on the assembly’s internal affairs, while the bench asked why he was reluctant to deal with the resignations quickly.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, for the Speaker, asked the court to lift its July 12 status quo order and let the Speaker rule on both the resignations and the disqualification petitions, arguing that the constitutional scheme did not call for judicial intervention in the assembly’s internal matters. The Chief Justice responded by asking where those objections to the court’s jurisdiction had been when it had appointed even a pro tem speaker.

The numbers

Sixteen MLAs have quit, 13 of them from the Congress and three from the JD(S), since July 7, and all but one are parties to the two petitions in court. If their resignations are accepted, the coalition would be left in a minority in the crisis that began on July 6. Their exit would bring the strength of the 224-member House down to 208, giving the BJP a majority.

Without the rebels, the coalition has 100 members excluding the Speaker, who votes only in a tie, and two independents have withdrawn their support. The BJP has the backing of 105 MLAs and expects the independents to support it. One member of the House is nominated. The alliance, formed in May last year to keep the BJP out of power, won just two of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats in the recent general election, while the BJP won 25.

What happened next

The Congress-JD(S) government led by HD Kumaraswamy, which had taken office on 23 May 2018 with Congress support, fell in July 2019, and BS Yeddyurappa returned as Chief Minister.

See also: Janata Dal (Secular) | State assembly members

Originally published on 17 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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