Hotel owner has 117 MLAs' support: Judge's joke on Karnataka crisis

The tense, high-voltage hearing on the Karnataka crisis in the Supreme Court on Friday witnessed lighter moments when a judge quoted a social media joke that the owner of a resort where the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular legislators were holed up has also staked claim to form government saying he had 117 MLAs.

“On a lighter vein, I must say that I saw a message circulated on the social media in which a resort owner wrote a letter to the Governor for formation of government saying he has the support of 117 MLAs,” Justice A K Sikri said.

Those present in the jam-packed courtroom number six burst into laughter when the judge shared his moment of coming across this funny stuff on Whatsapp.

Justice Sikri, who was sharing the bench with Justices S A Bobde and Ashok Bhushan, chose to share the witty stuff when senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, was arguing at his best with all emotion and passion that some reasonable time should be given for the floor test as MLAs have to come from the different parts of the states for it.

Justice Sikri was apparently referring to Congress-JD-S MLAs staying at the Eagleton Resort in Bengaluru.