The Supreme Court has allowed a plea by former Karnataka Minister T B Jayachandra against the High Court's order which rejected his election petition on "hyper technical grounds".
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka permitted the appellant to implead other candidates, along with BJP candidate, C M Rajesh Gowda who defeated him in by-election to Sira legislative assembly seat in Tumakuru district in 2020, to proceed with the election petition before the High Court.
The bench also noted "possibly little survives in the matter considering that now a fresh election is due shortly".
With this, the election petition has to be heard on merits by the High Court.
Though Karnataka Assembly elections are scheduled next year, under Section 8A of Representation of People Act, if the corrupt practice of the returned candidate is proved, he would be debarred from contesting elections for a period of six years.
Advocate K V Muthu Kumar appeared for Jayachandra and senior advocate S N Bhat represented Gowda.
Gowda was declared as a returned candidate for having secured 76,564 votes as against the petitioner, a Congress nominee who stood in the second position by with 63,150 votes.
Jayachandra challenged the validity of the High Court's order of June 18, 2021 which dismissed the election petition raising contention of "electoral malpractices".
The High Court had allowed objections raised on the petition particularly with regard to limitation period without hearing the plea on merit, he had contended.
"The High Court, while deciding an election petition ventured into hyper technicalities by rejecting extension of time to comply with curable defects raised by the Registry," Jayachandra's plea had claimed.
The appellant, who was elected six times to the Karnataka Legislative assembly, four times from Kallambella and two times from Sira constituency, claimed the winning candidate had failed to declare actual assets details and criminal cases pending against him.