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Order on rebel MLAs violates whip, claim Congress, JD(S) in Supreme Court

Separate applications were filed in the top court by president of Karnataka Congress Pradesh Committee Dinesh Gundu Rao and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is also the President of JD(S).

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The legal battle over the political imbroglio in Karnataka is not over yet. With the trust vote debate underway, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) chiefs moved the Supreme Court on Friday claiming that the order allowing the 15 rebel legislators of Congress-JD(S) to stay away from House proceedings was a violation of the party's power to issue whip.

The applications are likely to be mentioned on Monday.

Separate applications were filed in the top court by president of Karnataka Congress Pradesh Committee Dinesh Gundu Rao and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is also the President of JD(S).

Since the state Congress chief is not a party to the petition filed by the 15 rebel MLAs in the apex court, Gundu Rao has requested Court to add him as one of the parties in the case.

The applications, similar in their wording and format, claim that under the Tenth Schedule, before a trust vote is to be taken up, the political parties have a constitutional right to issue a whip. This whip is either to vote or abstain from voting in the House proceedings. However, as per the July 17 order of the apex court, the political parties are unable to issue the whip against their respective party MLAs as they have the freedom to stay away from the House. The Court order further claims that they cannot be compelled to attend the House, which essentially whittles down the constitutional right of the party to issue a whip.

Congress has 79 MLAs in the Assembly while JD(S) has 37. The application said, "Under the Tenth Schedule a political party has a constitutional right to issue a whip to its legislators. The exercise of this right under the Constitution is not circumscribed by any condition nor can it be subject to any restrictive orders from the Court even prior to the issuance of the whip."

Moreover, the applicants pointed out that an enquiry under the Tenth Schedule (pertaining to violation of the whip) is a proceeding of the State Legislature under Article 212 of the Constitution and the Court's order would essentially be treated as interference with the functioning of the House.

The 15 rebel MLAs had approached the top court with a grievance that though they had submitted their resignations in early July, the same were not decided by the Speaker. However, disqualification petitions against them filed subsequently were being taken up first. The apex court, in an interim order on Wednesday, refused to make the Speaker's decision on the resignations time-bound but required the Speaker to submit the same to the Court. Till the decision is taken, the 15 legislators were given a choice to remain out of the trust vote proceedings in the Assembly.

CRUX OF THE MATTER

The applications, similar in their wording and format, claim that under the Tenth Schedule, before a trust vote is to be taken up, the political parties have a constitutional right to issue a whip. This whip is either to vote or abstain from voting in the House proceedings. However, as per the July 17 order of the apex court, the political parties are unable to issue the whip against their respective party MLAs as they have the freedom to stay away from the House

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