Bopaiah has a record of passing biased disqualification orders: Congress-JD(S) to SC

The Congress-JDS combine told the Supreme Court that Karnataka Assembly pro-tem Speaker K.G. Bopaiah is a “relatively junior member” of the House with a “controversial and dubious record passing biased disqualification orders”.

This is the crux of the combine's application filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, just a couple of hours after Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala appointed Mr. Bopaiah as pro-tem Speaker to conduct the floor test by 4 p.m. at the Karnataka Assembly House.

Now, the very legality of his own position is under Supreme Court scanner, and will be examined by the court at 10.30 a.m on May 19.

The application, filed by advocate Devadatt Kamat and settled by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, said the appointment of Mr. Bopaiah was an attempt by the BJP to “seize and manipulate” the floor test ordered by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had closed for extended summer vacations, but the Congress lawyers led by Mr. Kamat ensured that the application was filed in the Registry, cured of all defects and sent to Chief Justice Dipak Misra's residence to be listed for urgent hearing.

A need for urgency is because the pro-tem Speaker starts functioning from May 19 morning, making preparations for the floor test to be held later in the evening. Now, the preparations would have to wait till the apex court takes a decision on Mr. Bopaiah’s appointment.

Mr.Bopaiah, the application said, has a history with the Supreme Court. Twice, in separate judgments in 2011 and 2012, the court had set aside disqualification orders passed by him, one of which involved Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. They want Mr. Bopaiah to be impleaded in this case.

The Congress alleged that the Governor's choice of Mr. Bopaiah was in “shocking disregard to binding parliamentary convention and long standing parliamentary practice of appointing the senior most member of the House”.

The application alleged that Mr. Yeddyurappa “in tandem with the Government at the Centre is exercising influence through the Governor to ensure that he sails through the floor test by hook or crook”.

The application said the present situation was a replication of defections orchestrated by Mr. Yeddyurappa in 2008 when he was short of majority. “The same is commonly known as Operation Lotus,” the application said.

The application has sought the floor test to be video-graphed and asked the court to direct the segregation of members into separate lobbies for the floor test so that counting could be done in a transparent manner.