Published: Tuesday, Oct 12, 2010, 1:27 IST
By Harish Gupta | Place: New Delhi | Agency: DNA
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_karnataka-speaker-took-a-leaf-out-of-hamid-ansari-s-book_1451342
On Tuesday, there will be an interesting battle between the ruling BJP and 16 disqualified legislators in Karnataka high court.
Top legal luminaries Soli Sorabjee and PP Rao will appear for the BJP and the disqualified MLAs.
The MLAs had moved the high court challenging their disqualification by speaker KG Bopiah.
The petition by the MLAs called the order a “clear violation of statutory rules”.
This is the first time the conduct of an MP or MLA outside the House, being seen as a cause for the disqualification, will come under the scrutiny of the court.
There is only one instance when a Rajya Sabha MP was disqualified for his conduct outside the House, but it was never challenged.
The order disqualifying the MP was passed by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari.
It seems Bopiah has taken a leaf out of Ansari’s book while debarring the MLAs under the 10th Schedule of the amended Anti-Defection Act.
Contrary to popular belief, a legislator can be disqualified only when he/she defies the party whip in the House. In 2008, Ansari had disqualified a Rajya Sabha MP for anti-party activities outside the House. The MP, Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, was found campaigning against the BJP while during a by-election. The party leadership sought his disqualification under the Anti-Defection Act, and after a hearing, Ansari upheld the BJP’s view.
Using the same argument, the BJP sought the disqualification of 11 of its MLAs for going to the Governor to seek the chief minister’s removal, criticising the party and joining hands with detractors.
Senior counsel PP Rao, who’s representing the disqualified MLAs, said the cases of Jai Narain Prasad and the MLAs are different. While Prasad had campaigned against the party, these MLAs had no confidence in the CM. They made representations to the party, but failed to get a response, so they went to the governor. “The MLAs wanted the removal of the CM,” Rao said.
However, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said the MLAs were disqualified as they went to the governor to seek the CM’s removal. “The governor is not empowered to entertain a handful of MLAs from the ruling party,” he said.
