The Supreme Court issued the guidelines until the state established the necessary communication rules.
Bangalore:
The Karnataka High Court has issued guidelines for political parties on how to pass instructions to its elected members.
After 35 years, the state has failed to legislate under the Karnataka Local Authorities (Prohibition of Defection) Act, 1987. In a court case involving elected members of the Mahalingapura Municipal Council, the court deemed it appropriate to issue the guidelines enact until the State has established the necessary rules.
The guidelines of Justice NS Sanjay Gowda say that a political party or its authorized person must provide a copy of the instruction to its members on how to act in a certain way at least 5 days before the meeting is convened. This applies to Whip issued by the parties when voting in a certain way.
The elected members of the party “would thus have the opportunity to seek permission to act contrary to direction and thus not be subject to disqualification under the law,” the guidelines said.
Another guideline is that no disqualification procedure will be initiated against the elected members if the direction of the political party has not been communicated to the authority competent to convene the meeting of the elected body.
The direction of a political party must be communicated to the elected member by the appropriate authority within 5 days prior to the meeting. If the convening notices are served in the same manner as when convening the meeting, such service shall be regarded as service.
The notice may be sent to the elected members by courier or by email, giving them at least 5 days to request permission to vote against the direction.
The guidelines were issued after a petition was filed by Savita, Chandini and Godavari, all members of the BJP’s Mahalingapur Town Municipal Council.
In November 2020, elections were held for the position of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board. Before that, a meeting of the elected councilors of the BJP was convened by the party shortly afterwards. At the meeting, Snehal Shivanand Angadi was declared the official presidential candidate and Laxmi Mahalingappa Muddapur was selected as the official vice presidential candidate.
The three members (petitioners in the case) were not present at the meeting and the party’s instruction to its elected members to vote for the official candidates was communicated to them by displaying the designation on the doors of their houses.
In the election, Savita and Chandini ran against the BJP’s official candidates for the position of president and vice president respectively. Both received 10 votes each, which was the same as the votes of the official candidates. Due to the tie, the election was decided by flipping a coin. Savita lost while Chandini won. A complaint was filed to disqualify them from voting against the official candidates. The Deputy Commissioner (DC) disqualified them from being councilors after an investigation. This was challenged by them in the Supreme Court.
The court said: “Merely sticking the whip on the doors of the petitioners’ houses by means of an acknowledgment would not be sufficient to establish that the whip has been served on the petitioners”. It said it was to be served “by the means known as RPAD and courier or by personal service.” The court also ruled that the DC had not established that the councilors had acted contrary to the direction given by the political party. The petition was granted and the DC’s disqualification order overturned.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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