Disqualification of K’taka rebels legal, but no ban on fighting polls

NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 lawmakers, whose resignations in July toppled the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka, even as it allowed them to contest bypolls in the state next month.

KR Ramesh Kumar, the then Karnataka assembly speaker, disqualified the 17 under the anti-defection law and barred them from contesting polls until the term of the current House ends in 2023.

“As per the Constitutional mandate, the Speaker is not empowered to disqualify any member till the end of the term,” a three-judge bench of justices NVRamana,SanjivKhannaand Krishna Murari held.

The disqualification by the Speaker in July had reduced the strength of the 225-member assembly to 208. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently has the simple majority of 105 in the House and also has the support of an Independent MLAs. The Congress-JD(S) alliance has 101 seats.

The bypolls to 15 out of the 17 assembly seats left vacant following the disqualification are scheduled on December 5. The BJP needs to win six out of the 15 to keep its majority. The bypolls to two other seats are not being held as petitions challenging their results in the 2018 elections are pending before the Karnataka high court.

NEWDELHI: TheSupremeCourton Wednesday referred to a larger bench the issue of whether the 2017 Finance Act could be passed as a Money Bill, while striking downcertainprovisionspertaining to the functioning of tribunals reconstituted under the act.

The decision virtually reopened the 2018 Aadhaar judgment since it had upheld the validity of the passing the Aadhaar Act, 2016 as a Money Bill. TheCentre relieduponthis precedenttodefendthemannerofthe passage of the Finance Act and provisions pertaining to the tribunals. The Centre’s submission led to the court examining the Aadhaar judgment in detail, particularly in relation to Article 110 of the Constitution which defines “money bills”.

“It is clear to us that the majority dictum in KS Puttaswamy [Aadhaar case] did not substantiallydiscusstheeffectof the word ‘only’ in Article 110(1) and offers little guidance on the repercussions of a finding when some of the provisions of an enactment passed as a “Money Bill” do not conform to Article 110(1)(a) to (g),” said the 3-2 ruling by the court.

MUMBAI: Adayafterthreeparties — Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress — indicated they are willing to form the government in Maharashtra together, they began deliberationsonacommonminimum programme (CMP) on Wednesday. The CMP will state the agenda of the proposed government and the power-sharing structure.

The development came after thestatewasplungedintoapoliticalcrisisonTuesday, withPresident’srulebeingimposedfollowingarecommendationfromGovernorBhagatSinghKoshyari.No political party— Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (105 seats), Shiv Sena (56), NCP(54) and Congress (44)— was in a position to form a government,Koshyarihadwritten to the Central government, preparingthegroundforthe288member House to be placed in “suspended animation”. Sena, NCPandCongressarelookingat a common agenda focused on tackling farm crisis and unemployment in the state. The deliberations between the three sides are expected to continue for the next few days before they arrive at a decision to form the government.

TheprocessstartedwithalatenightmeetingbetweenSenachief Uddhav Thackeray and senior CongressleaderAhmedPatelon Tuesday in which the two sides deliberated a quick formulation of a CMP, among other things. NCPchiefSharadPawarmetsenior party leaders to chalk out the nextcourseofaction.SeniorNCP leaderAjitPawarsaidtalkswere moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile, Congress and Sena decided to let their newlyelectedMLAsreturntotheirconstituencies. CongressMLAswho

› As per Constitutional mandate, the Speaker is not empowered to disqualify any member till the end of the term THE SC BENCH

were in a resort near Jaipur returned to the city on Wednesday. SenahasalsotolditsMLAs, lodgedatasuburbanresort,togo back to their constituencies.

BJP national president and UnionhomeministerAmitShah broke his silence on the political crisis and hit out at Sena. Speaking to news agency ANI, Shah questionedtheSenaonwhyitdid not object to Devendra Fadnavis being projected as the chief minister before elections.

“…Before the elections Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I said many times in public that if ouralliancewins,thenDevendra Fadnavis will be the chief minister. No one objected back then. Nowthey[ShivSena]havecome upwithnewdemands,whichare not acceptable to us,” Shah said.

He also defended Koshyari’s decision to recommend President’s rule saying the latter had given sufficient time after the resultswereannouncedandeven now if any party or parties have the majority, they could approach the Governor to form the government.