BENGALURU:
Karnataka High Court on Monday held that the disqualification of BJP MLC AH Vishwanath is still operative and the Governor must take note of it before considering his name if recommended by the Chief Minister to appoint him as a minister.
However, decks were cleared for MLCs R Shankar and N Nagaraj to become Ministers as their disqualification ceased to be operative since they got elected to the legislative assembly.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty passed the interim order to the effect after hearing a batch of public interest litigations.
“The Governor will take into consideration the disqualification of AH Vishwanath, while the disqualification ceased to be operative in case of Shankar and Nagaraj as they were elected to the legislative assembly if a recommendation is made by the Chief Minister to appoint them as ministers,” the court said.
The petitioners prayed to the court to pass an injunction in relation to the appointment of all three MLCs as Ministers due to the disqualification order passed by the Speaker, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. (agency)
