BENGALURU: Electing or nominating disqualified candidates to the Legislative Council amounts to “back-door entry”, senior counsel Prashant Bhushan argued before the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday.
He made the submission before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty, which was hearing a batch of PILs questioning the election and nomination of R Shankar, N Nagaraj and A H Vishwanath to the upper house.
Representing the petitioners, Bhushan also cited a Supreme Court judgement which upheld the disqualification of the three politicians by the Speaker. Therefore, they could not be elected or nominated to the Legislative Council, he said.
The bench adjourned the hearing to Thursday as the Advocate General sought time to make counter arguments. A H Vishwanath (nominated) and MTB Nagaraj lost in the December bypolls, while Shankar did not contest.
The petitioners contended that their nomination/election to the upper house was done with the intention of inducting them into the Cabinet of ministers. Inducting them into the council is contrary to Article 164 and 361B of the Constitution, they said.
During the previous hearing, the petitioners expressed apprehension about inducting the trio into the cabinet, and the court passed an order directing that any action on the matter would be subjected to the result of the writ petitions.