Karnataka High court imposes Rs 10k cost on Bagepalli MLA

Bengaluru: The high court has imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on Congress MLA from Bagepalli S N Subbareddy who failed to appear for cross-examination in a petition challenging his election. 

Justice M G S Kamal passed this order on August 13, stating the cost would be payable to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority.

The court was hearing the petition filed by C Muniraju, the BJP candidate who lost to Subbareddy in the 2023 Assembly elections.

The advocate for the MLA filed an interlocutory application seeking exemption from appearance for cross-examination due to the ongoing session of the Assembly, which ends on August 22.

The counsel for the petitioner opposed this and submitted that Subbareddy was personally present during the previous hearing on August 4 and that he could not claim to be unaware of the Assembly schedule. It was also submitted that the date and the time for cross-examination was suggested by the MLA himself.

The court observed that the matter had been adjourned on several occasions at the request of the MLA for one or the other reason by filing interlocutory applications.

The court said such adjournments had consumed time beyond the statutory time prescribed for disposal of the petition.

“Adjournments are given to meet ends of justice and to ensure that the parties are given substantial opportunity of being heard. This should not indicate that the adjournment can be granted at the mere asking, particularly on the ground as sought to be canvassed in the present application, more so as already noted, when the date and time of today’s hearing was fixed in the presence and upon the instructions given by respondent number 1 (Subbareddy) himself,” Justice Kamal said.

The court granted time, stating that no further adjournment shall be sought by Subbareddy and that he shall co-operate in expeditious disposal of the matter. It has been posted to August 29.