Bengaluru: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Karnataka high court against the recently announced bypolls in three parliamentary constituencies. The voting is scheduled to be held on November 3.
The PIL filed by advocate AP Ranganath on Wednesday states that conducting elections at this point is a loss to the state exchequer considering the tenure of the three members elected would be less than a year.
The three seats, Shivamogga, Ballari and Mandya, fell vacant after members from these parliamentary constituencies resigned from their positions to contest the assembly elections held in May this year. BJP state president BS Yedyurappa from Shivamogga, BJP's Sriramulu from Ballari and CS Puttaraju of JDS from Mandya are currently members of the legislative assembly.
When a seat is vacant, election must be held to fill the seat within six months. However, the petitioner pointed out the mandate to conduct elections is lost if the tenure of the elected member is going to be less than one year.
The bypolls are scheduled for November 3 and results will be declared on November 6. With the general elections expected to be held in May 2019, the tenure of these three members would be about six months.
"The conjoint reading of Section 149 and Section 151-A clearly indicates that wherever the seat of a member elected to the House become vacant and remainder of the term is more than one year, then the elections should be held within a period of six months from the date of occurrence of such vacancy. However, the elections cannot be held if the remainder of the term is less than one year," the petition states.
"For conducting these three bye-elections, State Exchequer will be burdened to an extent of Rs 24 Crores. To elect a Member of Parliament by expending huge amounts by shorter tenure, six months to say the least, is very absurd" he adds.
The case is yet to come up for hearing.
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