The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 rebel Karnataka MLAs by former Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar but allowed the legislators to contest the bypolls slated on December 5.
In an interim order in July, the Supreme Court had said that Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar was free to decide on resignations of the rebel MLAs.
Soon after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa won the confidence motion on Monday, Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar tendered his resignation.
Earlier on Sunday, Yediyurappa had said that he was '100 per cent confident' of proving majority in the House.
After a long tug of war between the coalition government and the BJP, which also reached the Supreme court, the Karnataka government fell on Tuesday after a trust vote to prove its majority.
Following the Supreme Court's order on floor test, BJP President BS Yeddyurappa called for Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's resignation tomorrow.
The court further said that the rebel MLAs cannot be compelled to participate in the trust vote on Thursday.
The Supreme Court will pass the order in the case tomorrow at 10:30 am.
The Speaker had earlier put the resignations on hold and argued that his constitutional duties mandated him to verify whether the resignations tendered by the MLAs were voluntary or forced.
Earlier on Wednesday, 10 rebel MLAs — seven from the Congress and three from the JD(S) — moved the Supreme Court alleging that the Speaker was sitting on their resignation letters in violation of the Constitution.
