K’taka High Court thwarts MLC Vishwanath’s Cabinet position desire

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has ordered that Vidhan Sabha member AH Vishwanath is disqualified from becoming a minister.

Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty in their order stated that Vishwanath was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

The court also ruled that MLCs R Shankar and N Nagaraj have not incurred the disqualification hence they can be made ministers.

A disqualified MLA must be re-elected to the Assembly to become eligible again for a cabinet position. As Vishwanath lost the by-election from Hunsur constituency, he remains disqualified from becoming a minister.

Vishwanath was one of the seventeen MLAs who resigned from the Assembly bringing down the HD Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) coalition. After losing the by-election he was elected to the Legislative Council of the State on a BJP ticket.