Karnataka High Court says BJP MLC Vishwanath disqualified, cannot be appointed minister

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday held that the disqualification of BJP MLC AH Vishwanath is still operative and the Governor must take it into consideration if the Chief Minister made a recommendation to appoint him as minister.

However, there was no hurdle for MLCs R Shankar and N Nagaraj to become ministers as their disqualification ceased to be operative since they have been elected to the legislative assembly.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty passed the interim order to that effect after hearing a batch of public interest litigations.

“The Governor will take into consideration the disqualification incurred by Vishwanath, while the disqualification ceased to be operative in case of Shankar and Nagaraj as they are elected to the legislative assembly, if a recommendation is made by the Chief Minister to appoint them as ministers,” the court said.

The petitioners prayed to the court to pass an injunction order in relation to the appointment of all three MLCs as ministers due to the disqualification order passed by the Speaker, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.