Daily Bulletin: SC to take up Karnataka rebel MLAs plea; Ayodhya land dispute case; England meet Australia in 2nd World Cup semi-final; day's top stories

Rebel Karnataka MLAs move Supreme Court, matter likely to come up today

The political crisis in Karnataka reached the Supreme Court on Wednesday as 10 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs moved a plea alleging that the Assembly Speaker has been deliberately not accepting their resignations.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took note of the submission of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the rebel MLAs, and assured him that it will see whether their petition can be listed for an urgent hearing on Thursday.

The senior lawyer said these lawmakers have already resigned from their membership of the Assembly and wish to contest fresh elections.

“We will see,” the Bench, which also comprised justices, Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, said when Rohatgi pressed for an urgent hearing, saying “time is the essence” in the matter.

The rebel MLAs sought a direction for the Speaker to accept their resignations. Further, they have sought a direction that the Speaker be restrained from proceeding with the application for their disqualification.

After Karnataka, Congress meltdown in Goa; 10 of 15 lawmakers join BJP

Post-Karnataka crisis, Congress has imploded in neighbouring Goa. Ten out of 15 Congress lawmakers have split from the party in Goa and have merged with the ruling BJP.

“10 Congress MLAs, along with their Opposition Leader, have merged with the BJP. The strength of the BJP has now risen to 27. They had come for the development of the state and their constituency. They have not put forward any condition, they have joined BJP unconditionally,” Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

All of these 10 MLAs are also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and current working president of the BJP Jagat Prakash Nadda.

The Congress is left with only five lawmakers in the seaside state where the party had emerged the single largest party in 2017. Since two-thirds of the lawmakers have split, they do not have to quit the Assembly.

SC to hear plea for early hearing of Ayodhya land dispute case today

A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer, will hear an application filed by one of the litigants in the Ayodhya case seeking early hearing of the matter on Thursday. The top court will hear the case at 10:30 am on Thursday.

Senior advocate PS Narasimha, who appeared for litigant Gopal Singh Visharad, told the bench headed by the Chief Justice on Tuesday that the apex court should list title dispute case for urgent hearing because “nothing much has been happening” in the case which was referred to the three-member mediation panel by the SC. After hearing advocate Narsimha’s argument, the SC asked him whether he had filed an application for early hearing. The advocate replied saying that he had already done so.

On 10 May, the SC had granted an extension to the mediation panel that is holding deliberations to resolve the Ayodhya land dispute. The panel had requested an extension until 15 August, which the court accepted.

The top court had then said that if the mediators were optimistic about the results then it saw no harm in granting additional time. The five-judge division bench, which granted the extension, was also headed by Gogoi.

Facebook’s Libra currency project cannot go forward until it addresses concerns, says US Federal Reserve

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has stated that Facebook’s plan to build a digital currency called Libra, “cannot go forward” until the social media giant addresses the serious concerns that have been pointed out. This appears to pile on further problems for Facebook’s plans to go ahead and launch Libra. Powell said that any regulatory review of the recently announced project should be “patient and careful,” while acknowledging digital currencies do not fit well within existing rules in the US.

Australia VS England in second ICC World Cup 2019 semi-final

Defending champions Australia take on hosts England in the second semi-final of the World Cup at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The winner will go on to face New Zealand in the final at Lord’s on Sunday. Australia come into it a beleaguered unit after injuries to key players.

Serena Williams faces Barbora Strycova, Simona Halep against Elina Svitolina in Wimbledon semi-finals

At All England Club, 23-time grand slam winner Serena Williams will look to make the final for a second straight year when she faces 33-year-old Czech Barbora Strycova. The second semi-final sees Romania’s Simona Halep face another first-time grand slam semifinalist in Elina Svitolina.

DHFL lenders to meet today to discuss resolution plan

The consortium of 31 lenders to the troubled Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) is meeting on Thursday to discuss a resolution plan for the third largest pure-play mortgage lender, sources said on Wednesday.

The lenders, which had last met on 1 July are still in the process of signing an inter-creditor agreement for the company, a must to decide on a resolution plan under the 7 June, revised NPA circular form of the monetary authority.

“The meeting is to discuss and decide on a resolution plan for DHFL,” a senior banker told PTI.

At the 1 July meeting, lenders had decided to sign the inter-creditor agreement by 5 July but could not do so yet.

“The process of signing the mandatory inter-creditor agreement is still on. A majority of the banks have signed the agreement,” said another banker.

John Abraham on Batla House clash with Mission Mangal, Saaho: ‘Other two films don’t concern me’

John Abraham recently spoke about the clash of his film Batla House with space drama Mission Mangal and action thriller Saaho on Independence Day this year. “The other two films don’t concern me. But I’m concerned about my film. We have done the math and we still want to release it on this day,” the actor told PTI.

He added that he has full confidence in director Nikkhil Advani’s calibre. Batla House also stars Mrunal Thakur and Ravi Kishan.