The former Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker K.B. Koliwad is learnt to have disposed of the petition seeking disqualification of 7 JD(S) rebel MLAs on Friday, checkmating one of the strategies the BJP had thought of to dwindle the Congress-JD(S) numbers. Three of the seven have been re-elected making this crucial.
The Karnataka High Court had asked the Speaker to pass an order over the disqualification before May 27. “The disqualification petition was dismissed today as the 14th Vidhana Soudha was dissolved on Thursday making this petition infructuous,” said S. Murthy, Secretary, Legislative Assembly. Mr. Koliwad told The Hindu that the advocates of the Speaker’s office had already submitted a memo to the High Court that the petition was infructuous as the whip issued by the parties for the Rajya Sabha polls was also infructuous as the 14th Assembly stands dissolved. “The Speaker’s office has already dismissed the petition and it cannot be revoked by a new Speaker,” he said.
