Karnataka Crisis: Supreme Court to Hear 15 Rebel MLAs’ Pleas on Tuesday
The Supreme Court was due on Tuesday to take up the Karnataka political crisis in a key hearing, examining what it has called “weighty” constitutional issues: whether 15 rebel MLAs should be allowed to resign or be disqualified. The MLAs belong to the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition, with the BJP watching closely.
Who is before the court
The court took up a petition from 10 rebel MLAs on July 12 and ordered the Speaker to maintain the status quo. Those 10 are A H Vishwanath, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, B C Patil, Byrati Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah, Mahesh Kumathalli, Narayana Gowda, Pratap Gouda Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi and S T Somashekhar.
On Monday five more MLAs, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, N Nagaraj, K Sudhakar and Anand Singh, asked a bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to make them parties to the pending case. They seek the same relief: a direction that Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar accept their resignations. The bench, which had ordered that the Speaker take no decision until Tuesday, also allowed senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for all 15, to amend the petition to widen the grounds for their resignation.
The legal questions
The resignations have put the HD Kumaraswamy government at risk of losing its majority in the Assembly. Besides whether the MLAs’ writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution is maintainable, the court has said it must consider whether the Speaker is obliged to rule on disqualification proceedings before accepting resignations. Counsel for the rebels argued that the Speaker was holding back on the resignations so that the MLAs would stay bound by the party whip and could be disqualified if they defied it in the House.
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 16 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.
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