The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Speaker closes Janata Dal(S) case

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Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Speaker closes Janata Dal(S) case

S. Rajendran

‘Cases cannot be pursued when the House is dissolved’
‘I refused to even sit in the court room’

BANGALORE: Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (which has since been dissolved) Krishna on Saturday closed all the four cases against 45 legislators whose disqualification was sought on charges of violating the provisions of the Anti-Defection law.

In an order, Mr. Krishna said the cases could not be pursued any further since the Legislative Assembly had been dissolved.

All the 45 members who were the respondents in the case belonged to the Janata Dal (Secular).

The petitioners in two of the cases were members of political parties other than the Janata Dal (S).

The petitions against the legislators had come in handy for the party leadership to ensure that the legislators refrained from crossing over to another party.

Soon after the closure of the four cases, Mr. Krishna told The Hindu that irrespective of the demand of the petitioners that he continue further hearing in the matter he could not do so since his “quasi-judicial powers” had ended with the dissolution of the Assembly. “I refused to even sit in the court room and passed my orders on the closure of the case in my chambers,” he said.

The Speaker passed the orders on Saturday when the petitions came up for hearing. The petitioners in these two cases were Vatal Nagaraj (Vatal Paksha), G.V. Srirama Reddy (CPI-M) and S. Rajendran (RPI).

The Speaker said he had conducted at least 20 hearings so far on the petitions and only recently the petitioners had filed affidavits seeking examination of witnesses.

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