Governor Vajubhai Vala today appointed K G Bopaiah as the pro-tem speaker of the Karnataka Assembly for administering oath to newly elected MLAs and conducting the Supreme Court-ordered floor test tomorrow, a decision denounced by the Congress.
Governor Vajubhai Vala today appointed K G Bopaiah as the pro-tem speaker of the Karnataka Assembly for administering oath to newly elected MLAs and conducting the Supreme Court-ordered floor test tomorrow, a decision denounced by the Congress.
Bopaiah, an old RSS hand, was administered the oath as pro-tem speaker by Vala.
Bopaiah was the speaker of the Assembly between 2009 and 2013.
Considered close to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, he had disqualified 11 disgruntled BJP and five independent MLAs ahead of a trust vote to help the Yeddyurappa government in 2011.
His decision was upheld by the Karnataka High Court but overturned by the Supreme Court, which said Bopaiah had acted in haste.
"Shocking decision by the Honble Governor..
Constitutional Convention says the seniormost, in this case RV Deshpande shouldve been named. Also Supreme Court had passed structures (sic) against the conduct of KG Bopiah as Speaker.
Sad to see Vajubhai Valaji behaving like an agent of BJP," senior Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao said reacting sharply to Bopaiah's appointment.
Usually the senior-most member of the Assembly is appointed the pro-tem speaker to administer oath to the newly elected MLAs.
R V Deshpande of the Congress party is the senior-most in the new House.
Here's what the court said about Yeddyurappa and Bopaiah in 2011:
On May 13, 2011 the SC quashed the disqualificaiton of the 16 MLAs.
A bench headed by justice Altamas Kabir while quashing the speaker’s decision said basic constitutional values and principles of natural justice were not observed by speaker K. G. Bopaiah in disqualifying the 11 rebel BJP and five independent legislators.
The apex court passed the order while setting aside the Karnataka high court order upholding the speaker’s decision, aggrieved by which the disqualified legislators had moved the apex court.
The apex court ruling came on an appeal by four of the 11 disqualified BJP MLAs in Karnataka against the high court order upholding the speaker’s decision.
The apex court bench had reserved its verdict on the appeal on 11 February after hearing at length counsel for the four MLAs - Gopala Krishana Belur, Shivanagaouda Naik, Shanker Linge Gowda and Bellubbi, besides lawyers for chief minister B. S. Yeddyuruppa and the assembly speaker.
Eleven rebel BJP MLAs and five independent ones were disqualified by the speaker on the eve of the voting on a no-trust motion against chief minister Yeddyurappa’s government.
The Bench had written, “Extraneous considerations are writ large on the face of the order of the Speaker and the same has to be set aside. The Speaker, in our view, proceeded in the matter as if he was required to meet the deadline set by the Governor, irrespective of whether, in the process, he was ignoring the constitutional norms set out in the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution and the Disqualification Rules, 1986, and in contravention of the basic principles that go hand-in-hand with the concept of a fair hearing.”
The Bench further noted, “There was no compulsion on the Speaker to decide the Disqualification Application filed by Mr Yeddyurappa in such a great hurry within the time specified by the Governor to the Speaker to conduct a Vote of Confidence in the Government headed by Mr Yeddyurappa. It would appear that such a course of action was adopted by the Speaker on October 10, 2010, since the Vote of Confidence on the Floor of the House was slated for October 12, 2010. The element of hot haste is also evident in the action of the Speaker in this regard as well. The procedure adopted by the Speaker seems to indicate that he was trying to meet the time schedule set by the Governor for the trial of strength in the Assembly and to ensure that the Appellants and the other independent MLAs stood disqualified prior to the date on which the Floor Test was to be held.”
The Bench said, “The Vote of Confidence took place on October 11, 2010, in which the disqualified members could not participate and, in their absence Mr.Yeddyurappa was able to prove his majority in the House. Unless it was to ensure that the Trust Vote did not go against the Chief Minister, there was no conceivable reason for the Speaker to have taken up the Disqualification Application in such a great hurry.”
With inputs from PTI
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