Bengaluru: The state High Court (HC) will pronounce on March 21, the verdict related to disqualification of the seven rebel legislators after Janata Dal (Secular) moved the High Court on March 19.
Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad’s move to reserve the judgement forced JDS to approach HC to find a solution before Rajya Sabha elections due on March 23.
Justice Raghavendra B Chauhan dealt with the petition submitted by JDS legislators C N Balakrishna and B B Ningaiah urging the HC to prevent the seven legislators Zameer Ahmed Khan, H C Balakrishna, N Cheluvarayaswamy, Akhanda Srinivasmurthy, Iqbal Ansari, Bheema Naik and Babu Bandisidde Gowda from voting in RS elections and also to urgently hear the disqualification matter.
High court felt that the decision of the speaker reserving the judgement does not serve any purpose as the voting is scheduled on March 23, where the state’s interests are at stake.
“The Speaker’s decision to reserve the order based on his conscience cannot be questioned but he should have delivered the order instead of withholding it”, the single judge bench felt. “There is no point in withholding the verdict for unspecified time and give rise to further political conflict”, the HC bench ruled stating, “The room to file a petition in the higher court for the litigants in future does exist.”
The bench instructed State Advocate General A S Ponnanna to keep the court informed about the speaker’s decsion and deferred further proceedings to the afternoon.
