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Speaker free to decide but Congress can’t compel MLAs to vote in trust vote: SC

In an interim order passed to maintain ‘constitutional balance’, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said while no time frame can be set for the Speaker to take a decision on the resignations of Karnataka rebel MLAs, the lawmakers also could not be forced to attend the trust vote scheduled for Thursday.

“Speaker should be free to take a decision, should not be fettered by any court direction,” the top court bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi said while adding ‘can’t compel MLAs to attend asembly’.

Sixteen MLAs — 13 from the Congress and three from JD(S) — have quit since July 7, pushing the Congress-JD(S) coalition government to the brink of collapse.

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If the resignations are accepted, the 15-month-old coalition would be reduced to a minority in the assembly and leave it poised on the brink of collapse in the climax of a crisis that began on July 6.

The Congress-JD(S) government led by HD Kumaraswamy will face a trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly on Thursday. Last week, Kumaraswamy had said he was ready to face a confidence motion after 16 coalition MLAs resigned.

Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar is yet to accept the resignations but if he does so the 15-month-old coalition would be reduced to a minority in the assembly. The strength of the 224-member Assembly would be reduced to 209 if the speaker accepts the 16 resignations

The ruling coalition would need support of 105 MLAs to retain the government but it has a strength on only 100, this excludes the speaker who can only vote in case of a tie. The BJP has the support 105 lawmakers and an independent lawmaker is also supposed to be on their side. One member of the assembly is nominated..

First Published:
Jul 17, 2019 10:49 IST

Source: HindustanTimes