The Hindu : No action on BJP plea for MLAs' disqualification

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

No action on BJP plea for MLAs' disqualification

By B.K. Vittal

Bangalore May 17. The petition submitted by the BJP Legislature Party to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, seeking the disqualification of seven members under the anti-defection law on the ground that they joined the Congress after their expulsion from the party, has made little progress.

Six months ago, the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party, Jagadish Shettar, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, presented the petition. The delay has exposed a legal lacuna, as the Anti-defection Act, it is stated, does not provide for any time limit for disposal of a petition seeking disqualification of members.

On the basis of the petition, the Assembly Secretariat served notices on the seven MLAs, and gave them two months to give an explanation. The time limit expires on May 27.

The MLAs are yet to respond to the notices, according to sources.

The members concerned are Gundappa Vakil, Krishnappa, K.H. Hanume Gowda, V. Papanna, and H.C. Basavaraju, who were expelled for cross-voting in the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha in March 2002, and A. Manju and Bharati Shankar, who were expelled a little earlier for anti-party activities even during their period of suspension.

Another member, C. Guruswami, had also been expelled, but no further action was sought to be taken against him as he had not joined the Congress.

Another notice

Sources say the Secretariat proposes to issue one more notice to the members, reminding them that the time limit set for filing their explanation was coming to an end, and asking them to comply with the notice issued to them. The reported plea of members was that they were in the process of consulting legal experts.

Basing its plea for disqualification on a judgment of the Supreme Court in 1996, on a case from Tamil Nadu, the BJP submitted the petition to the Speaker, M.V. Venkatappa, on November 26, but it was returned as certain formalities had not been fulfilled. The petition was then presented again in the first week of January this year.

According to Mr. Shettar, he got in touch with the Speaker, sometime ago, and impressed upon him the need to get an explanation from the members early, as a long delay will make one lose faith in the law. He was assured that action would be taken.

Pointing out that action had been taken on such petitions within two months, and at times within a fortnight in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Shettar told The Hindu that he would soon write to the Speaker to get an explanation from the members, and take whatever action he deemed fit.

The party might think of raising the matter in the Assembly in its next session if there was further delay, Mr. Shettar said.

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