PIL in high court: Restrain BSY from poaching MLAs

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday challenging the Governor’s move to swear in B S Yeddyurappa and invite him to form a government despite lack of a clear majority.

The petition filed by Advocate N P Amrutesh states that the action of the governor is in complete violation of the Schedule 10 of the Indian Constitution.

He has contended in his petition that the elections were held for 222 seats on May 12 and in the results declared on May 15, the BJP secured 104 seats while the Congress got 78 seats and the JD(S) gained 38 seats, respectively.

Thereafter, on May 16, BJP leader Yeddyurappa met the Governor and gave “a list of 104 MLAs” who have elected him as a leader of the BJP Legislature Party seeking an invitation to form the government. Likewise, the JD(S) and Congress parties also met the governor and gave a list of 117 MLAs who have elected H D Kumaraswamy as their Legislative Party leader to form the coalition government.

Despite this, the governor invited BJP leader Yeddyurappa to swear in as the chief minister and gave him 15 days to prove his majority on the floor of the house, the petition says.

The petitioner further states that the 15 days given to Yeddyurappa to prove his majority will lead to horse-trading of MLAs as previously demonstrated by BJP in Meghalaya, Manipur and Goa among other states.

The petitioner has sought directions from the court to restrain Yeddyurappa from poaching MLAs from other parties.

The petitioner has also filed a memo requesting the matter to be taken up on an urgent basis by the vacation bench of the court considering the emergency of the matter. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on May 22.