Bengaluru : Former Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Wednesday expressed a “sigh of relief” as the Supreme Court upheld his decision to disqualify 17 Congress- JD(S) MLAs.

“Supreme Court has upheld the disqualification- to that extent, it’s a sigh of relief (for me). On the issue of tenure (of disqualification), Supreme Court has not agreed to my interpretation I will speak on that after going through the text of the judgement,” Kumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, he has gone by the tenth schedule, keeping in mind the political and constitutional morality.

The apex court on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka on orders of the Speaker but allowed them to contest the December 5 bypolls in the state.

The court struck down the portion of the order of Kumar by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka Assembly in 2023.

In July this year, 17 MLAs were disqualified by Kumar based on the complaint of Congress and JD(S) after their absence and resignation from the assembly during the trust vote leading to the collapse of then H D Kumaraswamy-led government.

Kumaraswamy was leading a Congress-JDS coalition government.

Kumar had disqualified the legislators, ruling that those disqualified cease to be MLAs with immediate effect till the expiry of the 15th assembly (in 2023).