Sorry: SC refuses urgent hearing on plea challenging Karnataka government formation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to accord an urgent hearing to a plea which questioned government formation in Karnataka on the grounds that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's party JD (S) had not emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly elections.

"Sorry", a vacation bench comprising justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan told the counsel who mentioned the matter for urgent listing.

The counsel for the petitioner, who has withheld his original name in the petition for "security purposes", told the bench that people of Karnataka had voted for the BJP which had won 104 seats in the recently concluded assembly election.

"People of Karnataka had voted for 104 MLAs from the BJP and somebody else became the chief minister. People have not chosen him (Kumaraswamy as CM)," the lawyer said, adding "why should the people of Karnataka suffer".

The Karnataka Assembly elections held on May 12 for 222 of the 224 seats had resulted in a hung assembly with the BJP getting 104 seats, the Congress winning 78 and JD(S) 37.

Initially, Governor Vajubhai Vala had invited BJP to form the government after which B S Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Yeddyurappa had later resigned without facing the trust vote on the floor of the House. Following his resignation, the Congress-JD (S) combine was invited to form the government and Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the chief minister.