The Karnataka High Court on Monday upheld the disqualification of five independent legislators who had challenged assembly speaker K G Bopaiah’s order disqualifying them under the anti-defection law. The court also dismissed the writ petitions of the independent MLAs.
A full constitutional bench, comprising justices A S Bopanna, Mohan Shantanagoudar and S Abdul Nazeer, which reserved its orders after concluding the hearing from both parties on February 1, pronounced the judgement, here.
P M Narendraswamy, Venkataramanappa, Gulihatti Sekhar, D Sudhakara and Shivaraj Tangadagi were disqualified by Bopaiah on October 10, a day before chief minister B S Yeddyurappa sought the vote of confidence, which he won.
The court has viewed that the actions of the speaker is not a violation under the 10th schedule, 52nd amendment, which upholds the spirit and the objectivity of parliamentary democracy and strengthens it.
The five legislators, along with 11 BJP rebel MLAs, had earlier withdrawn support to the Yeddyurappa government by submitting a letter to Governor H R Bhardwaj.
The speaker had passed the order on separate writ petitions by two BJP MLAs C T Ravi and D N Jeevaraj, who is also chief whip of BJP legislature party, and one voter each from five Assembly constituencies represented by the five MLAs, seeking their disqualification.
The MLAs contested the disqualification order on the ground that they were not BJP members and remained independents. But the ruling BJP had maintained that they had joined the BJP and attended its legislature party meetings and hence were part and parcel of the party.
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The full bench took into consideration all the aspects and ruled that there was no mala fide intention behind the speaker’s disqualification order and he issued the order on his own without any pressure from the chief minister to do so. It also ruled that there was no violation of the natural justice.
Reacting to the judgement, the independent MLAs told reporters outside the court hall that they would approach the Supreme Court challenging the high court judgement.
The verdict has come as a big relief to Yeddyurappa, who will present his fourth budget on February 24. With the high court verdict coming in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the strength of the assembly stands at 206.
In the 225-member assembly, the ruling BJP has 106 members with the support of one independent member, Congress has 71 members, while Janata Dal (secular) has 27 members. There is one nominated member from the anglo-Indian community and the speaker. Two members from Congress and one from JD(S) have resigned from their membership to support the BJP.