Voting rights of elected reps in ULBs upheld

The Gulbarga Bench of the Karnataka High Court has upheld the legal validity of the provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Council Act with regard to the elected representatives of the State legislature and Parliament having voting rights in the urban local bodies (ULBs).

Two-member division bench, comprising Justices A V Chandrashekhar and Srinivas Gowda, on Thursday allowed the appeal of the State against the order of the single-judge bench which had held that the MLAs and MPs, who are part of the ULBs coming under their area, had no voting rights either in the election of the president and vice presidents, or during the no-confidence motion against them.

Justice H G Ramesh had earlier, while allowing the petition of the president of the Basavakalayan town municipal council in Bidar district, quashed his removal through a no-confidence motion since the elected representatives of the Assembly and Parliament had voted when the no-trust motion was put to vote. Subsequently, the president of the TMC was removed. The TMC president had challenged his removal questioning the validity of the Act allowing MLAs and MPs to vote in the TMC.

Later, the State had appealed against the order of the single-judge bench and the same has been allowed by the division bench upholding the provision of voting rights for MLAs and MPs in the proceedings of the ULBs.

Government advocate P Vilas Kumar had represented the State.