The Supreme Court has upheld the disqualification of 17 MLAs of the Karnataka Assembly. The three-Judge Bench of Judges NV Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna, and Krishna Murari delivered the judgement on the basis of a plea filed by the 17 disqualified MLAs challenging their disqualification.
However, the SC held that the then Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar cannot dictate the duration of the disqualification till the end of the 15th Legislative Assembly term. The SC verdict gave its nod to the disqualified MLAs to contest the December 5 bypolls in Karnataka.
Fourteen rebel MLAs of the Congress and three of the JD-S were disqualified under the anti-defection law by the Speaker in July.
The Speaker also said the MLAs cannot contest elections until the term of the current assembly ends in 2023.
