Senior lawyer and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Wednesday expressed happiness with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the resignation letters of the dissident MLAs in Karnataka, contending that the plea of the rebels for issuance of a directive to the Speaker for accepting their resignations had been rejected.

Insisting that the whip controversy is irrelevant to the case, Singhvi, who represented the Speaker in the court, said later: “Their main plea was that the Speaker should be given directions — to accept resignations, when and how and so on. The Supreme Court refused to interfere, saying there won’t be any fetters on the Speaker.”

Singhvi added: “The order saying that the MLAs should not be compelled to attend the session has nothing to do with the case. No whip has been issued to these MLAs. The process of disqualification/resignation is pending and the court has said the Speaker can do whatever he thinks is constitutionally right. We wanted that the Speaker should be the master of proceedings and the court endorsed it. What is the BJP celebrating? Their stand is based on a misinformation campaign.”