SC restores membership of 16 Karnataka legislators

In a major setback to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Friday struck down the Speaker’s order to disqualify 11 BJP MLAs and five independent MLAs of the state assembly in October last year. With this, all the 16 MLAs have been reinstated.

The bench, headed by justice Altamas Kabir, while quashing the speaker K G Bopaiah’s decision said the Speaker did not observe basic constitutional values and principles of natural justice while disqualifying the 11 rebel BJP and five independent legislators.

The 11 disqualified legislators are Gopalakrishna Beluru, Anand Asnotikar, Balachandra Jarkiholi, B.N. Sarvabhouma, Bharamgowda H. Kage, Y Sampangi, G N Nanjundaswamy, M V Nagaraju, Shivan Gowda Nayak, H S Shankaralinge Gowda and Bellubbi Sangappa Kalappa. The five disqualified Independent members of the assembly are Shivaraj S Tangadagi, Venkataramanappa, P M Narendra Swamy, D Sudhakar and Gulihatti Shekar.

The speaker had disqualified the rebel legislators on an October 8 petition of the ruling party after they gave a letter to Governor H R Bhardwaj on October 6, withdrawing support to the first BJP government in south India and for expressing their lack of confidence in the leadership of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.

Along with the 11 legislators, five Independents were also disqualified on the same grounds after the Speaker served a show-cause notice on October 8. They were given time till October 10 to explain why they should not be disqualified for indulging in anti-party activities.

Subsequently, the disqualified legislators challenged the order in the Karnataka high court. After prolonged arguments, the High Court upheld the Speaker’s decision citing the anti-defection law. The MLAs further challenged the order in the Supreme Court. The apex court passed the order while setting aside the Karnataka high court order upholding the Speaker’s decision.

On the direction of the governor, Yeddyurappa, who had won the first trust vote on October 11, took another trust vote on October 14 by a division of votes and won it with a 106-100 margin in a house with an effective membership of 209, including one nominated and two legislators abstaining from the special sessions.

With the Supreme Court restoring the membership of these 16 legislators, the strength of the state assembly has gone up to 223. One member from the Janata Dal (S), Karadi Sanganna, recently resigned from his membership. The ruling BJP has 110 members with the support of one independent member, Varthur Prakash, Congress has 71 and JD(S) has 26. The BJP needs to get 112 votes to retain its power.