SC verdict awaited on disqualified Karnataka MLAs' plea, EC goes ahead with plan to hold Dec 5 bypollsEven as the disqualified Karnataka MLAs moved the Supreme Court on Friday with a plea to postpone the scheduled bypolls, the Election Commission on Sunday said it is going ahead with the plan to hold bypolls to the 15 Assembly constituencies.
Voting for 15 assembly seats will take place on December 5 and votes will be counted on December 9 for the by-elections, Sanjeev Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, said.
Model Code of Conduct will come into effect from 11 November, he added.
The Election Commission had announced these dates on September 27 in view of the pendency of the petitions filed by the disqualified lawmakers. The bypolls to 15 assembly seats earlier scheduled for October 21 but were postponed to December 5 as the matter was pending in the top court.
Out of the 17 constituencies that fell vacant, by-polls for 15 seats was announced by EC on September 21. Election to two seats – Maski and RR Nagar - were withheld as election petitions in this regard were pending in the Karnataka High Court.
The decision to postpone the date of the elections was taken as hearing on disqualified MLA's plea to allow them to contest elections was still on the top court. The MLAs have also challenged Speaker Ramesh Kumar's decision to disqualify them.
A bench headed by Justice NV Ramana heard their pleas and reserved its verdict on October 25. The verdict is yet to be delivered, thus the disqualified MLAs are still ineligible to file their nomination.
The disqualified MLAs moved the Supreme Court on Friday, seeking further postponement of the Assembly bypolls.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for 17 MLAs, sought postponement of the bypolls till the apex court delivers its verdict on their petitions. He was asked by the court to file a fresh application in this regard.
Kumar had disqualified 17 MLAs including 13 from the Congress, 3 from the JD(S), and an Independent after they rebelled against the then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in July.
The leaders were disqualified by the Speaker, stating that they have "incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) and the disqualification would last till the end of the term of the Assembly May 23, 2023."
Prominent among the Congress MLAs who were disqualified were MTB Nagaraj, K Sudhakar, Munirathna, Shrimant Patil, Byrathi Basavaraj.
The Supreme Court had on September 12 refused to pass an order on a plea to list a batch of petitions filed by 17 disqualified MLAs challenging their disqualification from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly by the former Speaker under the anti-defection law rejecting their resignation and disqualifying them from the Assembly.