In a historic pre-dawn hearing, the Supreme Court today cleared the last-minute hurdle created by the Congress-JD(S) combine for the BJP's ambitious surge in southern India by paving the way for B S Yeddyurappa to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Hours after an apex court bench, specially convened in the wee hours, refused the Congress-JD(S) challenge to Governor Vajubhai Vala's communication to Yeddyurappa to be sworn in as CM, the lingayat leader took the oath at 09:00 AM at a simple ceremony in the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.
A specially constituted three-judge bench comprising Justices A K Sikri, S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan, after more than three hours of hearing, made it clear that it was not interfering with the Governor's decision to invite the saffron party to form government in the state in which BJP with 104 seats has emerged as the single largest party.
During the high-voltage hearing, which lasted from 2.11 AM to 5.28 AM, the top court made it clear that the swearing-in and government formation would be subject to the final outcome of the case.
The court directed the Centre to place before it two communications sent by Yeddyurappa to the Governor in which he had staked claim to form government, saying their perusal was necessary to decide the case.
It issued notices to Karnataka government and Yeddyurappa seeking their replies on the plea filed by Congress-JD (S) combine and posted the matter for hearing at 10.30 AM tomorrow.
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The unprecedented hearing, during which the doors of the top court were unlocked at around 1.30 AM, saw senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Congress-JD (S) combine, questioning the validity of the Governor's invitation to Yeddyurappa to form government and giving him 15 days time to prove his majority.
His arguments were countered by Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing three BJP MLAs -- Govind M Karjol, C M Udasi and Basavaraj Bommai.
When the issue of anti-defection was raised, the bench observed, "it is completely preposterous to argue that once a person is elected and before he takes oath as an MLA, he is not amenable to the anti-defection law. This means that it is an open invitation to horse trading".
"This Court is not passing any order staying the oath-taking ceremony of B S Yeddyurappa. In case, he is given oath in the meantime, that shall be subject to further orders of this court and final outcome of the writ petition," the bench said in its order.
Venugopal questioned the manner in which the plea was filed and said "we do not know what transpired in the meeting between the BJP leader (Yeddyurappa) and the Governor. I do not think B S Yeddyurappa is served or represented here. The whole thing is in a grey area and in a realm of speculation."
The bench said: "we are saying that they (BJP) may be the single largest party but they do not have support of any other party or the independents. It is very unlikely that they (BJP) have said that they do not have support of 112 MLAs (the majority mark)."
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