BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday set aside the election of G Manjunath, independent MLA from Mulbagal reserved constituency (SC) in the 2013 assembly elections.
Allowing a petition partly filed by Muni Anjanappa, defeated candidate of JD(S), Justice AS Bopanna observed that the very acceptance of the nomination and further declaration of the result is illegal as Manjunath belongs to 'Byragi' caste (OBC) and has failed to establish that he belonged to 'Beda Jangama' caste (Scheduled Caste).
The court also imposed costs of Rs 25,000 on Manjunath. The court has noted that the there were several discrepancies in conducting the mahazar for grant of SC caste certificate to Manjunath and the guidelines issued by the apex court in conducting mahazar were not followed.
In the elections held to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on May 5, 2013, Manjunath had secured 73,146 votes as against his nearest rival Muni Anjanappa who had secured 39,142 votes.