JOIN USA Bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir, which is hearing the case, on Friday asked the High Court not to hear the matter till further order. Filed by BJP chief whip D N Jeevaraj and MLA C T Ravi, the petition has challenged the High Court order allowing independents to amend their petition and application for putting additional grounds.
The Bench issued notices to five independent MLAs on the plea seeking stay of November 15 order allowing them to amend their petition.
The Bench also sought response from the independents — P M Narendraswamy, Shivaraj Thangadagi, Gulihatti D Shekhar, Venkataramanappa and D Sudhakar — and posted the matter for hearing on December 2.
The High Court had allowed the plea of independents to amend the petition to replace the sentence “the petitioners had never left the BJP” with “the petitioners had not joined the BJP at all”. They had contended that the original sentence was an “inadvertent mistake”.
However, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and advocate Bhupender Yadav, while mentioning the petition on behalf of the BJP MLAs, said allowing the amendment would change the nature of the petition filed by the independents before the High Court.
Senior advocate P P Rao and Jeetender Mahapatra, appearing for the independent MLAs, maintained that it was a bona fide mistake.
During the brief hearing, the Bench, also comprising Justice Cyriac Joseph, observed that “it will have serious consequence. It said the court will examine the issues raised in the petition”.