All eyes on High Court of Karnataka State

The Karnataka High Court was once again the cynosure of all eyes as it began hearing petitions by the 16 disqualified MLAs for the second day in succession on Tuesday.

The matter was taken up at 3 p.m. on Monday, while on Tuesday it was taken up in the morning and Court Hall No 1 was packed to capacity with no standing room.

A large number of advocates, activists of political parties and mediapersons thronged the court hall where a Special Division Bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice N. Kumar commenced hearing.

The Bench had to appeal to the gathering to keep quiet when the crowd grew restive and began taking loudly.

The temperature within the court hall rose as the huge crowd within the court hall switched off the pedestal fans placed on the aisles.

When the Bench completed hearing arguments in the petition filed by BJP rebels at 1.45 p.m., those inside rushed out to have a quick bite.

They rushed back to occupy seats as the next case relating to the disqualification of the Independent MLAs was slated to come up for hearing before the Bench.

However, there was not as much police security today as there was on Monday.

Towards evening, OB vans of almost all media groups were stationed in front of the Golden Jubilee Gate of the High Court and the police had a tough time clearing the traffic from near the premises.

In stark contrast to all the activity in the High Court, the Vidhana Soudha almost wore a deserted look with only officials present.

The BJP MLAs along with the party Ministers were in New Delhi.