Election petitions should ideally be disposed within 6 months: K'taka HC

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

It derided the habit of dragging such petitions till the next elections.

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

The court made this observation during the arguments when the counsels for both the petitioner and respondent were struggling to verify some of the documents submitted. The court said it was not prudent to waste the court’s time in such cases.

Muniraju Gowda had filed the petition under the Representation of the People Act seeking the disqualification of Naidu.

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

Gowda deposed before the court on Thursday. He reiterated his allegation that Naidu had got officers of various departments transferred to places of his choice before the election was announced.

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

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

While Muniraju was deposing from the witness box, Justice Dixit directed the court officer to provide him a chair in the witness box itself saying there was no need for him to stand.

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