Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing on plea against invite to Cong-JD(S) to form Karnataka govt

Hindu Mahasabha had filed a plea seeking a declaration that the post-poll Congress-JD(S) alliance is a “fraud on the electorate and violative of the Constitution ... whereby electorate have been misled and deceived by both political parties.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to accord urgent hearing on a plea filed by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) challenging governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to invite the Congress-JD (S) combine to form government in Karnataka.

The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha for urgent listing but the court refused the request and said the plea be heard in the due course.

“You have mentioned it but we have not accepted it. It will come up in due course,” the bench told the counsel representing the outfit.

The ABHM, in its plea, has alleged that the post-poll alliance of Congress-JD (S) was a “fraud” on the electorate.

On May 19, the apex court had ordered live telecast of the crucial floor test in the Karnataka Assembly to ensure “transparency” and later that evening, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had resigned without facing the trust vote on the floor of the House.

Following his resignation, the Congress-JD (S) combine headed by JD (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy was invited to form government. Kumaraswamy is slated to take oath as chief minister on Wednesday.

Elections held on May 12 for 222 of the 224 seats had resulted in a hung assembly with the BJP getting 104 seats, the Congress winning 78 and JD(S) 37. Polling in two seats will be held later.

The Congress-JD(S) combine, a post-poll alliance, claimed the support of 117 MLAs, including one from the BSP, and two others.

The Hindu outfit, in the plea filed through ABHM general secretary Munna Kumar Sharma, has sought quashing of the governor’s decision to appoint Kumaraswamy as the chief minister.

The plea, filed through lawyer Barun Kumar Sinha, has sought a declaration that the post-poll Congress-JD (S) alliance is a “fraud on the electorate and violative of the Constitution ... whereby electorate have been misled and deceived by both political parties.”

“Such fraudulent, opportunist, collusive, tactics between these two political parties have defrauded the electorate of the state of Karnataka which is against the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” the plea submitted.

The plea has claimed that the Governor was bound to consider the concept of popular government in a parliamentary democratic system and the “opportunistic post-poll coalition has to be disregarded by the Governor keeping in view the people’s will”.

“A political party which has no mandate of the people of Karnataka to form popular government, cannot stake claim with support of another political party which has also been voted out of power by the people of Karnataka,” it submitted.