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Updated: Nov 14, 2019 00:33 IST

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 NV Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and 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.

The seven-day nomination process for the bypolls began on Monday. The bypolls were to be held along with Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls on October 21 but were rescheduled in view of the SC’s verdict on the disqualification of the 17.

The bench dismissed the appeals filed by the 17 challenging their disqualification. It said that there was a need to have some checks and balances to prevent defections.

“There is a growing trend of the Speaker acting against the constitutional duty of being neutral. Further horse trading and corrupt practices associated with defection and change of loyalty for lure of office or wrong reasons have not abated. Thereby the citizens are denied stable governments. In these circumstances, there is need to consider strengthening certain aspects, so that such undemocratic practices are discouraged and checked.”

In Bengaluru, deputy chief minister CN Ashwathnarayan said that the disqualified lawmakers will on Thursday join the BJP five months after they helped the party to return to power.

Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa welcomed the verdict and said that it was against the “conspiracy” of Kumar and Congress leader Siddaramaiah. He said that the BJP will win all the 15 seats and that the party would decide on giving tickets to the disqualified lawmakers.

The 14 Congress and three JD (S) lawmakers were disqualified before chief minister HD Kumaraswamy resigned after losing a trust vote on July 23. The resignation paved the way for the Yediyurappa-led BJP government.

“The Supreme court allowing us to contest the election is important to us. We welcome it. We are politicians. This verdict is important to us,” AH Vishwanath, one of the disqualified lawmakers, said.

Kumar said that he heaved a sigh of relief after learning about the verdict.”The Supreme Court has upheld the disqualification [and] to that extent, it is a sigh of relief [for me],’’ he said

“On the issue of tenure [of disqualification], the Supreme Court has not agreed to my interpretation. I will speak on that after going through the text of the judgement,” Kumar told reporters in Bengaluru.

The Congress demanded the prime minister should investigate the defection of 17MLAs to the BJP from the JDS-Congress as well as tapes where CM Yediyurappa was allegedly heard telling the party’s MLAs that the apex court will be managed.

Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was also counsel of the Karnataka speaker, said that the party demanded the resignation of CM Yediyurappa. “We ask the Prime Minister and the other important people in this Cabinet to do some soul searching about what their party is doing as these things do not happen without the full involvement of the central leadership. Today, the BJP stands exposed completely,” Singhvi said.

Congress general secretary in-charge for Karnataka KC Venugopal said that the Supreme Court judgment is a clear vindication of the stand taken by the Congress.

Former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy said the Supreme Court’s verdict on the disqualified MLAs “has no meaning”.

“On the one hand upholding the disqualification and on the other, allowing them to contest the election...,” he told reporters.

(With PTI inputs)