SC upholds disqualification of 17 Karnataka MLAs, paves way to contest bypolls

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs in Karnataka on orders of the then Speaker but paved the way for them to contest the December 5 bypolls on 15 seats in the state.

The court struck down the portion of the order of then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the term of the 15th Karnataka Assembly.

"We uphold the orders of the Speaker on disqualification," a three-judge bench of justices N V Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Krishna Murari said.

"However, we have struck down the second part of the order which says disqualification till end of life of the current assembly," the bench said.

The court said if elected in bypolls, these disqualified MLAs can become ministers or hold public office.

The apex court also said that a Speaker is not empowered to disqualify a member till the end of tenure of the assembly.

"It is clear that the speaker does not have power to either indicate the period of disqualification or to say that the person cannot contest election till the tenure of the assembly," it said.

The bench deprecated the manner in which the disqualified MLAs directly approached it without first moving high court.

"We do not appreciate the manner in which the petitioners have approached this court," the bench said, adding, "a party challenging a disqualification order is first required to approach the high court."