Yeddyurappa safe as Karnataka high court swats away an old trouble

Relief: that’s the word that can best describe chief minister Yeddyurappa’s state of mind as of now. Instead of sinking his face in his hands, the chief minister will have his chin-up after the Karnataka high court on Monday upheld the disqualification of five Independent MLAs by assembly speaker KG Bopaiah under the anti-defection law.

The verdict comes as a breather for Yeddyurappa as he had won the trust vote last time with a margin of 106 against the opposition’s strength of 100. Adverse verdict would have put his government in trouble, again. The five independents have decided to move the Supreme Court against the high court verdict.

A full bench upheld the October 10, 2010 order of Bopaiah who had disqualified the MLAs after they decided to vote against the government.   The Independents—Gulihatti Shekar, D Sudhakar, PM Narendra Swamy, Venkataramanappa and Shivaraj Tangadagi—had questioned the Speaker’s order citing violation of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

The bench observed, “the Speaker’s order does not violate the rules of natural justice. The order is not in violation of constitutional mandate or mala fide or perverse and hence disqualification of 5 independent MLAs is in order.”