"You Have Brought It To Our Notice, That's It. Let Us Give The Judgment Now": SC On Yediyurappa's Speech On Karnataka MLAs

"We wish to bring certain events to Your Lordships. This has happened after Your Lordships had reserved the judgment...a speech was made by the present Chief Minister at the core committee meeting of the BJP...every newspaper has reported it...it shows that everything was engineered at the instance of the Home Minister and that they were privy to it. Sending the MLAs for hospitality was done at the instance of the Union Home Minister. And that if the MLAs are not given a ticket now, it would be letting them down and would be unethical", began Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday.

The Karnataka Congress on Monday requested the Supreme Court, hearing the 17 MLAs' disqualification case, to take on record a fresh audio clip in which Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is purportedly hitting out at his party leaders for not recognising the "sacrifice" of the disqualified Congress-JD(S) MLAs, because of whom the BJP could come to power.

"What is the relevance of this? We are already considering all these issues. We have heard you on how they went to Mumbai and stayed at a 5-star hotel...", observed the bench headed by Justice N. V. Ramana.

Quoting from the speech of the CM, Mr. Sibal proceeded to read, "the decision of the 17 MLAs was not by me or any other state leader...It was at the instance of the National President who took care of them for two and a half months...for so long, they have not gone to their constituencies or seen their wives and children...they resigned, even went to the Supreme Court to be able to resign, and are now disqualified..."

Cutting across this narration, the bench remarked, "You have brought it to our notice. That's it. Let us give the judgment now"

"Our only request is that please take it on record", urged Mr. Sibal, even as the opposite side argued that these were tactics only to "sensationalise" the matter and "delay" the adjudication.

"Their entire case is of denial. And this shows suppression. Please take it on record...", added Senior Counsel Rajeev Dhawan, despite the reluctance of the court to hear anymore on the issue.

However, no notice was issued.