Election petitions should ideally be eliminated within 6 months: K’taka HC

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has observed that election petitions should ideally be processed within six months.

He scoffed at the habit of dragging out such petitions until the next election.

Justice Krishna S Dixit made the observation while hearing an election petition filed in 2018 by Muniraju Gowda, who as a BJP candidate lost the assembly seat of Rajarajeshwari Nagar to the candidate of the then Congress, Munirathna Naidu, who is now a minister in the BJP government.

The court made this observation during oral argument as attorneys for both the claimant and defendant attempted to verify some of the documents submitted. The court said it was unwise to waste time in such cases.

Muniraju Gowda had filed the petition under the Representation of the People Act requesting Naidu’s disqualification.

Naidu then joined the BJP and won the same party assembly seat in a by-election. While Gowda is now a ruling party MLC.

Gowda filed in court Thursday. He reiterated his allegation that Naidu had officers transferred from various departments to places of his choosing before the election was announced.

He also submitted documents to the HC relating to other cases pending in the lower courts regarding his complaint about alleged Naidu corruption.

Gowda also claimed that he had filed corruption complaints against Naidu, who was a powerful man, and that a criminal case was also pending before the special court to try cases against politicians.

As Muniraju testified from the witness box, Judge Dixit ordered the court officer to provide him with a chair in the witness box itself saying there was no need for him to stand .

After a chair was provided, the judge in a lighter vein said people were tied to chairs (read position) and Gowda should leave that chair behind in court after the hearing.