Supreme Court permits 2 Independent Karnataka MLAs to withdraw plea for immediate floor test
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed two Independent MLAs from Karnataka to withdraw their plea seeking a direction to the assembly speaker to conduct "forthwith" a floor test on the H D Kumaraswamy government's trust move.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submissions of the senior lawyers representing Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and Kumaraswamy that they have no objection to the withdrawal of the petition.
The bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose then allowed the counsel for MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh to withdraw the plea on the ground that it has become infructuous after Tuesday evening's floor test.
The Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka headed by Kumaraswamy collapsed with 99 members voting for the motion and 105 against it in a House with an effective strength of 205 members.
The apex court expressed displeasure over the senior lawyers not appearing before it for seeking withdrawal of the plea.
"When you want an urgent listing, you come before us night, day or midnight. But when the court wants a counsel, he chooses not to appear," the bench observed.
On Wednesday, the top court sought the presence of senior lawyers Mukul Rohatgi and A M Singhvi, who represented the lawmakers and the Speaker, respectively, for passing the order allowing withdrawal of the plea.
The Independent MLAs had moved the apex court, saying the state has plunged into political crisis after they withdrew their support to the JD(S)-Congress government and 16 lawmakers of the ruling coalition tendered their resignations.
The legislators accused the government of taking advantage of the logjam and making several executive decisions like transferring of police officers, IAS officers and other officials.
Their petition was filed after Kumaraswamy and Karnataka state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao moved the top court, accusing Governor Vajubhai Vala of interfering with assembly proceedings during the debate on trust vote.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
