SC to hear Karnataka floor test plea on Wednesday

 The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on a plea seeking direction to conduct the trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly immediately.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that it will hear the matter on Wednesday after Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing Karnataka Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar appeared optimistic and assured the court that the floor test might take place by the end of the day.

Two Independent legislators -- R. Shankar and H. Nagesh -- had moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to conduct the trust vote in the Assembly immediately.

The petitioners said in the plea that they have withdrawn their support to the ruling Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition.

Karnataka is facing a political crisis after several Congress and JD-S MLAs resigned from the Assembly or joined hands with the BJP in a bid to pull down the H.D. Kumaraswamy government.

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy on July 19 moved the Supreme Court seeking clarification on its July 17 order which permitted 15 rebel MLAs to opt out of the House and said the Governor was interfering in the conduct of the trust vote. IANS