Nominated members of municipal councils can't vote for MLCs: K'taka HC

Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court, in a significant ruling, held that the nominated members of municipal councils do not have the right to vote in the elections of the Members of the Legislative Council from the constituencies of urban local bodies.

A single-judge bench of Justice Hemant Chandangoudar observed that as per Article 243 (6) of the Indian Constitution and the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act, nominated members of the municipal corporations can only give advice. They do not enjoy the voting rights available to the elected members of such councils, including the right to vote during council meetings.

By extension, the court said, that the nominated members of these councils do not have the right to aprticipate in the legislative council elections.

The matter of the voting rights of the nominated members was before the court in the MLC election dispute filed by Gayatri Sahtegowda of the Congress who lost to Pranesh of the BJP by a margin of just 6 votes in the Legislative Council elections.  

The order was passed by a single-member bench of Justice Hemant Chandan Gowder who heard the election dispute petition filed by Gayatri Shantegowda of Congress who lost against BJP’s M K Pranesh by a margin of just 6 votes.

The High Court judgment could create hurdles, in the near future, for M K Pranesh who had been elected to the Karnataka Vidhana Parishad in the elections held in December last year from the Chikkamagaluru Urban Local Body Constituency. A separate election petition challenging the validity of his election to the upper house is pending before another bench of the Karnataka High Court.