Bangalore: Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar received the resignations of rebel MLAs who met him Thursday evening on a direction from the Supreme Court and said the resignations are in the “right format” and he would examine the letters whether they are “voluntary and genuine”.
“The legislators wrote their resignation in my office in the prescribed format and submitted them to me personally. I will go through them and decide (on them) after I hear them personally,” Kumar told reporters here.
The Speaker also asked the legislators to give in writing to him reasons for resigning from the assembly segments and that they were doing voluntarily.
“I will communicate to the Supreme Court on Friday that I have acted upon the matter as per the law and in compliance with its order issued earlier in the day,” he said.,” Kumar told reporters after meeting the disgruntled legislators.
Asserting he will abide by rules, the Speaker said he will take a “just decision which may be of convenience to some and inconvenience to some.”
Meanwhile, sources said the rebel MLAs were returning to Mumbai. Kumar said the proceedings have been videographed, and will be sent to the Supreme Court Registrar General.
He said “Court has asked me to come to a decision, I have written to them (SC) the word “forthwith” they have said, I am unable to understand what to decide, as Constitution says something else, so I have given them (MLAs) time (to appear before me).
“Unfortunately, eight of the 13 letters that reached my office last week were not in the format,” the Speaker said. Kumar also insisted that he was neither responsible for the current political situation nor its outcome.
Ten Karnataka rebel MLAs, who were camping in Mumbai, arrived here by two special flights, hours after the apex court allowed them to meet the Assembly Speaker to convey their decision to resign.
The MLAs boarded a luxury bus from the HAL airport and proceeded towards the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat. The top court earlier asked the speaker to decide “forthwith” Thursday about the resignation of 10 rebel Congress-JD(S) coalition MLAs, allowing them to meet him at 6pm.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the decision taken by the Speaker has to be intimated on Friday when the court takes up the matter again. The resignation of 16 MLAs (13 from Cong and three from JDS) has pushed the coalition government to the brink of collapse. Two independent MLAs have also withdrawn support to the coalition government.