Yeddy is Safe as 11 Dissident MLAs Remain 'Disqualified'
Gabriel Vaz
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Oct 29: In a major relief to the beleaguered Karnataka Chief Miniser B S Yeddyurappa ahead of the Rajyothsava Day and Diwali celebrations, the third single judge of the High Court Justice V G Sabhahit on Friday upheld the decision of the Legislative Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah in disqualifying the 11 dissident ruling BJP MLAs for "anti-party activities."
The Speaker had disqualified 11 BJP MLAs and 5 Independents, just a couple of hours before Yeddyurappa’s crucial trust vote in the state assembly on October 11 after they informed the Governor H R Bhardwaj in writing on October 6 about their decision to withdraw support to the government.
The Governor had asked the Chief Minister to prove his government’s majority on the floor of the assembly by October 12. The ruling party managed to win the floor test by disqualifying the 16 MLAs on October 11 itself amid tight security and chaotic conditions by ``voice vote.”
However, the Governor took exception to the voice vote victory secured by Yeddyurappa as a ``farce” and had sent a detailed report to the Centre recommending dismissal of the Yeddyurappa regime and imposition of the President’s Rule.
But, obviously under pressure from the Congress-led UPA regime, the Governor virtually reversed his stand on the next day and offered a ``second chance” to Yeddyurappa to prove his majority on the floor of the assembly again, if he wished, with a clear division of votes in favour and against, by October 14.
The Chief Minister and the ruling BJP took up the second chance offered by the Governor after it became known that the Karnataka high court, which heard the separate writ petitions filed by the 16 disqualified MLAs, did not grant a stay order against the disqualification and posted the hearing to October 18. Thus, the Yeddyurappa regime proved its majority in the assembly by 106 to 100 votes on October 14.
Thus, after the Yeddyurappa regime proved its majority in the assembly twice within a matter of three days, the division bench of the Karnataka high court finally came out with its split decision. While the Chief Justice J S Kehar decided in favour of the speaker’s decision in disqualifying the 11 BJP MLAs, the other judge Justice N Kumar quashed the disqualification. With a split in the division bench, the matter was referred to a third judge to decide on the disqualification of the 11 MLAs from BJP.
The Division Bench, however, referred the case of the 5 Independents to a separate bench and posted the hearing to November 2.
Justice V G Sabhahit, who was finally named as the third judge, heard the matter and reserved his ruling, which was finally delivered on Friday afternoon.
The third judge was necessiated as the division bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice N Kumar expressed divergent views on invoking para 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution — pertaining to defection — against these MLAs, based on CM's complaint. The bench had concurred on three aspects of the case — rules, principles of natural justice
The 11 rebel MLAs of BJP, who had been disqualified by the Speaker, have announced that they will approach the Supreme Court.
However, the fact remains that the decision of Justice Sabhahit has come as a windfall to the Yeddyurappa regime ahead of the Rajyothsava Day celebrations on Monday and the Diwali festival next week as the 11 MLAs with the backing of 5 Independents could have forced the Chief Minister to resign even without facing the assembly for another floor test as the ruling party would have been reduced to a minority in the assembly.
The ruling party, however, sought to improve its position in the assembly by persuading as many as 2 Congress MLAs and 1 JD(S) MLA to resign their membership of the assembly by resorting to ``Operation Kamala” and thereby reduce the strength of the Congress and JD(S) from 100 to 97. The BJP had also managed to win over the support of Independent MLA, Varthur Prakash, who had switched his loyalties to JD(S).
In fact, political grapevine has it that the ruling BJP had prepared plans for ``winning over” another 8 to 10 Congress and JD(S) MLAs through Operation Kamala in order to ensure that the Government was not disturbed even if the High Court verdict went against the disqualifications.