NEW DELHI – India’s Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the disqualification of17 lawmakers belonging to the Congress party and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)from southwestern state Karnataka, officials said.
The top court however, rejected former Karnataka assembly speaker RameshKumar’s decision to bar the disqualified lawmakers from contesting pollsuntil 2023 and allowed them to contest in the upcoming by-polls for thevacant seats in the state next month.
“In a parliamentary democracy, morality is equally binding on thegovernment and the opposition,” the Supreme Court said while upholding thenSpeaker’s decision. “Speaker couldn’t have barred the MLAs (lawmakers) forany term as Speaker doesn’t have the powers.”
The 17 lawmakers, 14 from Congress and three from JD-S, were disqualifiedin July under the anti-defection law by the Speaker, who even ordered thatthey cannot contest elections until the term of the ongoing Assembly endsin 2023. The lawmakers are believed to have been pressured to resign by theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after which they attempted to contestelections again – even though their resignation prevented the Congressparty from making the government in Karnataka.
Read Top Stories
The Congress party has hailed the court’s decision as a step in favor ofIndian democracy, as well as a step towards anti-defection.
The resignation and subsequent disqualification of the lawmakers resultedin ending the Congress-JD-S coalition government in the state and paved wayfor Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a local government. – Xinhua
