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Appointed by Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala, Bopaiah was at the receiving of the Supreme Court in 2011 for disqualifying 11 rebel BJP MLAs.

New Delhi: BJP leader K.G. Bopaiah, appointed pro-tem speaker by Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala in a controversial manner Friday, has a chequered past.

In 2011, he was at the receiving end of the Supreme Court. While setting aside his order as speaker of the assembly disqualifying 11 rebel BJP MLAs on the application by then chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, the court observed, “Extraneous considerations are writ large on the face of the order of the Speaker and the same has to be set aside.”

The bench also observed that not only did the speaker’s action amount to denial of the principles of natural justice to the appellants, it also revealed a “partisan trait in the Speaker’s approach in disposing of the Disqualification Application filed by Shri B.S. Yeddyurappa.”

Bopaiah is considered close to BJP leader Yeddyurappa.

The bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph was damning in its indictment of the man, whom the governor has controversially selected to preside over the trust vote Saturday.

Incidentally, the charge against him then was that by disqualifying the 11 rebel BJP MLAs and five independents, Bopaiah had tried to ensure the survival of the BJP government headed by Yeddyurappa.

“Having considered all the different aspects of the matter and having examined the various questions which have been raised, we are constrained to hold that the proceedings conducted by the Speaker on the Disqualification Application filed by Shri B.S. Yeddyurappa do not meet the twin tests of natural justice and fair play. The Speaker, in our view, proceeded in the matter as if he was required to meet the deadline set by the Governor, irrespective of whether, in the process, he was ignoring the constitutional norms set out in the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution and the Disqualification Rules, 1986, and in contravention of the basic principles that go hand-in-hand with the concept of a fair hearing,” it noted.

The bench had also commented adversely on the ‘hot haste’ with which Bopaiah had disposed of the disqualification petition.

“There was no compulsion on the Speaker to decide the Disqualification Application filed by Shri Yeddyurappa in such a great hurry within the time specified by the Governor to the Speaker to conduct a Vote of Confidence in the Government headed by Shri Yeddyurappa. It would appear that such a course of action was adopted by the Speaker on 10th October, 2010, since the Vote of Confidence on the Floor of the House was slated for 12th October, 2010. The element of hot haste is also evident in the action of the Speaker in this regard as well,” the court noted.

In their judgment, the SC judges had also referred to the fact that the speaker is supposed to act independently, without taking into consideration his own past party affiliation.

The bench also referred to the fact that under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, in case a legislator elected as speaker, deputy speaker or a similar position in the upper house voluntarily gives up the membership of the political party to which he belonged immediately before his election, he can’t be disqualified.

“The object behind the said paragraph is to ensure that the Speaker, while holding office, acts absolutely impartially, without any leaning towards any party, including the party from which he was elected to the House,” it noted.

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