SC sets aside Karnataka HC's order on JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna
Feb 16, 2022
New Delhi [India], February 16 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday has set aside the Karnataka High Court order which dismissed the plea filed by one G Devarajegowda challenging the winning of Prajwal Revanna in the 2019 Hassan Lok Sabha constituency election.
A bench of justices Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh allowed the appeal of G Devarajegowda challenging the Karnataka High Court order which dismissed his plea against the winning of Prajwal Revanna in the 2019 Hassan Lok Sabha constituency election.
"In view of the aforesaid reasoning as well as our judgment in Civil Appeal No.1774/2020 titled "A. Manju v. Prajwal Revanna @ Prajwal R & Ors." dated December 13, 2021, relating to the same elected candidate/respondent, we set aside the impugned judgment and remit the matter back to be tried along with other petition as aforesaid leaving all defences open to the respondent expeditiously, " the Court said.
"The appeal is allowed in the aforesaid terms, " the court clarified.
The Court said that undisputedly election law being technical in nature, it cannot take an expansive view of the pleadings while considering the defects.
"This, we clarify, in no way takes away from the right of the respondent to raise all the defences in the election petition but the only question before us was whether it can be knocked out at the threshold, " the court said.
Prajwal Revanna, won the election in 2019 from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency as a joint candidate of JDS and Congress.
Devarajegowda, in the plea, said that his election petition was dismissed by the High Court on "procedural irregularities."
The appellant Devarajegowda being an ex-Karnataka Development Programme Inspection Committee Member for Hassan District and ex-State General Secretary of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee was aggrieved by fielding Prajwal and consequently, the appellant resigned from Congress.
He said the High Court did not consider the fact that by dismissing the election petition, it was running a risk of having a representative in parliament who has not got the maximum number of valid votes.
The appellant claimed that the votes received by Revanna are not valid and hence, he cannot be considered to be the true representative in the Parliament. The appellant has sought from Karnataka High Court to declare the result of elections as null and void.
Senior Advocate Pramila Nesargi appeared for appellant Devarajegowda. His plea was filed by Balaji Srinivasan.
