The Supreme Court was set to deliver its order on Wednesday on petitions from 15 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs who want the Karnataka Assembly Speaker directed to accept their resignations, as uncertainty grew over whether HD Kumaraswamy’s government, in office for 14 months, would survive.

Arguments in court

Tuesday’s hearing saw intense arguments. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, for the Chief Minister, said the rebels were “hunting in a pack” to topple the government and that the Speaker could not ignore this. He described the dispute as one between the Chief Minister and someone who wanted his job, and urged the bench to withdraw both of its interim orders. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for the rebels, said the Speaker was acting in a partisan and mala fide way and had frustrated their fundamental right to resign, arguing that the rules required an immediate decision on resignations.

Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar argued that as a constitutional functionary he could not be directed to decide the resignations before the pending disqualification applications. The bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose said it was not stopping him from deciding on disqualification, only asking him to establish whether the resignations were voluntary. It remarked that the court had given the Speaker a “very high status” when interpreting the anti-defection law decades ago, which might need another look, and said it would balance the rival submissions. Kumar said he was acting in line with the Constitution and doing his duty, and would respond once he had studied the verdict.

The numbers

Kumaraswamy must seek a vote of confidence on Thursday, and his government could fall before it if the Speaker accepts the resignations. The coalition has 117 members in the House, Congress 78, JD(S) 37, BSP 1 and one nominated member, besides the Speaker. The opposition BJP counts 107 MLAs in the 225-member House with the two independents who have withdrawn support from the government. If the 16 resignations are accepted, the coalition’s tally would fall to 101.

To keep their legislators together before the floor test, the Congress, the BJP and the JD(S) have moved their MLAs to resorts. On Tuesday the Congress shifted its MLAs from a city hotel to an outlying resort, worried that more legislators might quit.

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: Congress | State assembly members

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

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