In their petition, they alleged that their disqualification by Speaker KG Bopaiah on October 10, last year on the ground of defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution was and “illegal and without jurisdiction”.
They argued that the verdict had failed to appreciate the fact that joining the government did not mean that they had joined a political party. “The HC has travelled beyond the scope and ambit of the Tenth schedule by coming to an erroneous conclusion that an independent MLA can be disqualified by joining the government as a minister and has wrongly equated that joining the government as minister with joining a political party,” the petition filed by advocate Prashant Kumar stated.
MLAs Venkataramanappa, MP Narendraswamy, Shivaraj Tangadi, D Sudhakar and Goolihatti Shekar were disqualified on October 10, last year as they submitted a letter to the Governor four days ago withdrawing their support to BSY government. They had joined the BJP government as ministers in May 2008.
They also pleaded that they could not be disqualified two years and five months after their joining the ministry with their withdrawal of the support.
As many as 11 BJP MLAs, also disqualified by the Speaker, had already challenged the order of the HC upholding termination of their membership from Assembly in the apex court that had reserved its verdict after hearing arguments.