BENGALURU/KOLAR: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday declared the 2013 election of G Manjunath as independent MLA from Mulbagal reserved constituency (SC) as illegal as he is alleged to have provided a fake caste certificate to contest from the constituency. The court imposed cost of `25,000 on him.
Partly allowing the election petition filed by Munianjappa, the defeated JD(S) candidate, Justice A S Bopanna observed that Manjunath has failed to establish that he belonged to ‘Beda (Budaga) Jangama’ caste which falls under Scheduled Caste (SC).
The court declared that Manjunath belongs to ‘Byragi’ caste which falls under Backward Caste category. He failed to establish that he belongs to Beda Jangama caste as shown in his caste certificate dated April 3, 2012 which was submitted along with his nomination. Therefore, the acceptance of his nomination and the consequent declaration as elected to Assembly through certificate dated May 8, 2013 is declared illegal, the court said.
Referring the discrepancies in conducting mahazar and violation of Supreme Court guidelines with regard to the issue of caste certificate, the court said Manjunath was not qualified to contest the election from the constituency reserved for SC. Hence, the acceptance of Manjunath’s nomination is illegal and has materially effected the election result, the court said.
As far as prayer of transferring thrown away votes to Munianjappa and to declare him as elected, the judge said, “At this juncture, I do not find it necessary to advert to the details in that regard inasmuch as the term of the Assembly is to end shortly and the calendar of events for election has already been announced.” Manjunath was elected as MLA by securing 73,146 votes against Munianjappa who secured 39,142 votes on May 8, 2013.
The petitioner alleged that while admitting Manjunath to school, his parents had stated that he belongs to ‘Byragi’ caste as recorded in the admission records which is also indicated in the TC when he was studying SSLC. Byragi or Jangala caste is not the same as Beda Jangama nor are they SC. The Byragi caste is notified as BC Category-I in the government order dated March 30, 2002 and as such it cannot be considered as SC. The caste certificate dated April 3, 2012 relied upon by him is concocted, manipulated, bogus and the computer generated printout is not genuine certificate, he alleged.
Meanwhile, on the last day of filing nomination on Tuesday, Manjunath filed a second set of nomination papers from Kolar (General) while former Union minister K H Muniyappa’s second daughter Nandini filed her papers from Mulbagal as an Independent.
Roopakala papers’ scrutiny adjourned
Kolar: Scrutiny of nomination papers of Roopakala, daughter of former Union Minister K H Muniyappa and Congress candidate from KGF, was adjourned to Thursday following objection raised at the time of scrutiny on Wednesday. According to sources, when the papers were taken up for scrutiny,
JD(S) candidate M Bhaktavatsalam alleged that Roopakala’s name figured
in two constituencies — Tumakuru and in Bethamangala (KGF constituency). He urged the Returning Officer to reject her papers. According to sources, even BJP candidate Ashwini has appealed for rejection of Roopakala’s papers on the ground that the applicant has not filled the ‘criminal cases’ column with
full details.