Karnataka HC invalidates JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna's Lok Sabha membership

The election of JD(S) Member of Parliament from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, was declared null and void by the High Court of Karnataka on Friday. Prajwal Revanna is the grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

In a setback to JD (S) Member of Parliament Prajwal Revanna, the Karnataka high court on Friday set aside his election from Hassan constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, on the ground of indulging in corrupt practices. Justice K Natarajan allowed the election petitions in part and also rejected the prayer in both the petitions to declare A Manju as returned candidate in view of the findings that Manju himself was involved in corrupt practices. The court further ordered issuance of show cause notices to Prajwal’s father H D Revanna, the then district in-charge minister, and also to his brother Suraj Revanna for indulging in corrupt practices.

The petitions were filed by defeated BJP candidate A Manju and G Devaraje Gowda, ex- KPCC general secretary. The petitions prayed for setting aside Prajwal’s election for failure to comply with the requirements under Section 33(A) of the Representation of People (RP) Act. It was stated that though Prajwal was 28 years old as on the date of filing the nomination, he had claimed to have acquired the properties in the year 2009-10 when he was hardly 18 years old and just a student.

“In view of my findings in issues in both the cases answered against the respondent no.1 (Prajwal Revanna) and in favour of the petitioners that the petitioners have proved the issues framed by the court and the corrupt practices of the respondent no 1 in the Hassan Parliamentary Election regarding non disclosure of material facts, wrong disclosure of the value of the properties, evading taxes, proxy voting, exorbitant expenditures than the limit prescribed by the Election Commission of India, wrong acceptance of nomination paper by the Returning Officer. The election of the returned candidate/respondent no.1 is liable to be set aside as prayed by the petitioners in both the cases,” the court said.

Show cause notice

Justice K Natarajan observed that the petitioners were successful in proving that H D Revanna was involved in corrupt practice by diverting the funds allocated to Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited by misusing his official position as District In-charge Minister of Hassan. “Apart from that, H D Revanna also actively participated in proxy voting at Booth No.244 of Padavalahippe Village and casted the votes in favour of the respondent no.1,” the court said.

The court noted that digital evidence showed that Prajwal’s family members were involved in the corrupt practices. The court also pointed out that the petitioner had not named H D Kumaraswamy, who was the then Chief Minister and also the Chairman of the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited.

“However, the petitioner had not named H D Kumaraswamy or the mother of the respondent Bhavani Revanna in the prayer, but there were averments in the petition as well as in the evidence both oral as well as documents apart from the CCTV Footage and Hard Disc were all shows the family members of the respondent No.1 involved in the corrupt practices. Therefore, H D Revanna involved in throughout corrupt practices in helping respondent No.1, who is his son and the others are all having little role to play,” the court said, while ordering issuance of show cause notices to Revanna and Suraj Revanna as to why they should not be so named as per Section 99(a)(ii) of Representation of People's Act and proceeded against.