SC Declines Urgent Hearing To Karnataka Speaker's Plea For More Time To Decide On Resignations Of Rebel MLAs

The Supreme Court today declined to give urgent hearing to an application moved by Speaker of Karnataka legislative assembly to extend the today midnight deadline set by the Court to decide on the resignations of the rebel MLAs.

This was when a oral mention for urgent consideration of the application for time extension was made before the Chief Justice of India by Senior Advocate Dr. A M Singhvi, the Speaker's counsel.

The CJI said that will consider the application tomorrow along with the petition of the legislators.

The CJI-led bench had today morning asked the ten rebel MLAs to present themselves before the Speaker Ramesh Kumar today at 6 PM to submit their resignations. The Speaker was told to take a decision on resignations within rest of the day itself. The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose was hearing the plea of the legislators that Speaker was deliberately delaying decision on their resignations. The Court added that it will consider the matter further tomorrow.

The Speaker sought extension of time citing the reason that it was necessary to examine whether the resignations were voluntary or due to coercion or inducements.