New Delhi: Karnataka High Court (HC) ruled that BJP Legislative Council Member (MLC) AH Vishwanath is not eligible to be a minister in Chief Minister Yediyurappa’s cabinet as he was disqualified as an MLA last year under the law against defection.
Vishwanath was one of 17 MLA rebels who resigned from the JD (S) -Congress coalition government in Karnataka in July last year to join the BJP. He was disqualified along with other rogue MLAs by the speaker under the anti-desertion law and the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification.
Although he challenged Hunsur’s re-elections in December with a BJP ticket and lost. According to the Indian express Yediyurappa nominated Vishwanath as MLC to fulfill promises to provide ministerial posts to all defectors who helped the BJP form the government.
The court ruled that Vishwanath “attracts disqualification under section 164 (1) (b) and section 361 (B)” of the Indian Constitution until he is re-elected to the legislature.
However, in the case of two other defectors, MTB Nagaraj and R. Shankar – whose failure to be re-elected to the state assembly was challenged in the high court along with Vishwanath’s petition – The HC bank said that despite being disqualified as members of the anti-desertion law, the two were elected to the legislative council unlike Vishwanath, who was nominated, the report adds.
Article 164 (1) says that “a member of the legislative assembly of a State or of any of the Chambers of the legislature of a State that has a legislative council belonging to any political party that is disqualified for being a member of that House. .. he will also be disqualified from being appointed minister … for the duration of the period beginning from the date of his disqualification until the date on which his term of office as a member would expire or when he challenges any election to the legislative assembly of a State or of any of the Chambers of the legislature of a State that has legislative council, as the case may be, before the expiration of said period, until the date on which he is declared elected, whichever occurs first ”.
the Indian express The report says that the HC’s decision is likely to be a “respite” for Yediyurappa, who is under pressure to fulfill his promise to accommodate all defectors in the state cabinet.
Yediyurappa is looking to expand its 27-member cabinet on a large scale to its full force of 34 ministers and there is intense competition for the seven vacancies.
However, the BJP rejected multiple requests from Yediyurappa for a cabinet expansion authorization in recent months. – apparently an obstacle in the way of the prime minister’s plans. This time, however, the prime minister reportedly said that the cabinet expansion would take two or three days. The BJP leadership rejected him again when he traveled to Delhi in the second week of November to obtain authorization for his cabinet expansion.
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