The Karnataka high court on Friday directed legislative assembly speaker KG Bopaiah to produce the records maintained with him on the disqualification of five independent MLAs.
The Karnataka high court on Friday directed legislative assembly speaker KG Bopaiah to produce the records maintained with him on the disqualification of five independent MLAs.
After hearing the arguments, a full bench, comprising justice Mohan Shantanagoudar, justice S Abdul Nazeer and justice AS Bopanna, observed, “We want to see the records with the speaker. We want to satisfy ourselves. They must be perused by us, for our conscience. The court is of the opinion that records maintained by the speaker relating to the disqualification, need to be perused.”
The bench further directed for the production of the records pertaining to the information of five independent MLAs. The MLAs, PM Narendraswamy, Gulihatti D Shekhar, D Sudhakar, Shivaraj S Thangadagi and Venkataramanappa, were disqualified by speaker Bopaiah on October 11, 2010, the day chief minister BS Yeddyurappa took a vote of confidence.
The five independents along with 11 BJP rebel MLAs, had withdrawn support to the chief minister by submitting a letter to governor HR Bhardwaj.
The bench thereafter adjourned the case to February 1, when it is likely to reserve the case for orders. The arguments regarding the case, concluded on Friday.
Counsel Ravi Varma Kumar, representing the MLAs, submitted that there is no declaration to show that they have joined the BJP. Senior counsel PP Rao argued that the speaker’s action was ‘stage-managed by the chief minister’.
AG Holla, senior counsel for the voters, said, “It was a joint hearing both by the speaker with the voters and the BJP MLAs. The speaker’s decision cannot be questioned elsewhere. They should be questioned before the speaker itself. The speaker’s order is correct.”
Vijayshankar, counsel for Bopaiah, submitted that the speaker does not hold any obligation to respond to the notices by the court, impleading him in the case. Besides, the speaker is appearing only to advice and assist the court, to resolve the issue pertaining to allegations of mala fide.
He contended that the allegations against the speaker that he was favouring the chief minister, is not correct. “They are baseless and there are no documents to substantiate the allegations. Further, there is a need for the court to know the sources from where the allegations of mala fide against the speaker by the five have sprouted,” he said.
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