Congress legislators to spend night in K'taka legislature demanding minister Eshwarappa's dismissal
Bengaluru, Feb 17: Congress legislators will spend the night inside Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Council on Thursday, demanding the sacking of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa and also that he be booked for sedition regarding his statement about the national flag.
This came even as protests by the party legislators rocked the proceedings in both houses for the second consecutive day.
Congress members stayed back in the assembly, even after it was adjourned for the day.
Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, and former chief minister B S Yediyurappa later met Leader of Opposition and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah in the assembly premises and held talks.
Earlier, addressing reporters outside the assembly, Siddaramaiah, accusing BJP and Sangh Parivar of disrespecting the national flag, said the Congress has decided to stage 'day-and-night' protests, to take the issue to a "logical end".
Noting that the Governor, who is the constitutional head, should have intervened and given instructions for Eshwarappa's dismissal, as his comments amount to treason, he said: "The Chief Minister is also not taking action against Eshwarappa, the RSS is implementing its hidden agenda through Eshwarappa."
Meanwhile, Eshwarappa said there is no question of him resigning for any reason, and he is a patriot who had gone to jail during the Emergency period.
"Let them protest, I won't budge," he said, and demanded that state Congress chief D K Shivakumar resign, accusing him and his party of 'misusing' the national flag for protests.
Recently, Eshwarappa had claimed 'Bhagwa dhwaj' (saffron flag) may become the national flag some time in the future and the same may be hoisted on the Red Fort then.
He however had said the tricolour is the national flag now, and it should be respected by everyone.
Terming the stand taken by Congress leaders as anti-people, Chief Minister Bommai said, earlier too overnight protests have taken place in the assembly, but they were on issues concerning people, farmers and interest of the state, but this is a protest by misinterpreting a statement.
"There is nothing wrong in Eshwarappa's statement, there is nothing in his statement that is against law. As they (Congress) don't have any other issues they are doing this. For the first time without any reason overnight protest is being held, this is not the sign of a responsible opposition. They feel they will get political mileage out of it, but they are wrong," he said.
At a time when the people and government are working towards sorting out issues and creating a conducive atmosphere for students in schools and colleges, and maintain peace, instead of working together and sending out a message of unity, the Congress is trying to play politics, he added.
The Chair in the assembly on Wednesday had rejected the Congress' adjournment motion demanding the dismissal of and sedition case against Eshwarappa.
The Speaker also has held meetings of floor leaders to end the stalemate, but they were unsuccessful.
It was in 2019 last time when the legislators had stayed put in the assembly overnight. At the time, it was the BJP MLAs then who were protesting against the delay in then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy taking a trust vote on the floor of the House.
In 2010, Congress legislators had staged a similar protest against the then BJP government on the illegal mining issue.
It was in 1996, when the first such overnight protest is said to have taken place in the assembly. It was by BJP then against the J H Patel government over power tariff hike.
Earlier, as soon as the Assembly met for the day on Thursday, Congress members trooped into the well of the House to mark their protest.
After the House paid tributes to former MLA Mallur Ananda Rao, who died on February 14, Speaker Kageri took up the Question Hour, and Congress members began shouting slogans demanding action against Eshwarappa, calling him "Desha Drohi" (traitor).
The Question Hour took place amid sloganeering from Congress members, who did not participate in it, despite repeated requests from the chair.
Slogans like - "We want justice", "We want resignation", "Down, down to corrupt government", "Eshwarappa - desha drohi", "This Government is RSS' puppet", "BJP government is anti national flag" - among others marred the proceedings.
After the Question Hour, the Speaker asked Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah to speak on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor's address, but he did not speak and continued to protest from the well along with Congress legislators.
As the chaos continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till 3 pm.
As Congress members continued their protest from the well of the assembly, shouting slogans demanding Eshwarappa's resignation, when it met post lunch, Speaker Kageri adjourned the House for Friday.
In the Legislative Council too, proceedings were marred by Congress' protest with placards from the well, demanding action against Eshwarappa.
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SC refuses review of decision against confiscating funds received via electoral bonds
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking the review of its decision rejecting the petitions for confiscating Rs 16,518 crore received by political parties under the 2018 electoral bond scheme.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra dismissed the review plea filed by one Khem Singh Bhati against the top court's decision of August 2, 2024.
The apex court had then rejected the petition seeking confiscation of money received under the scheme.
The bench on March 26 held, "The review petition is dismissed in terms of the signed order. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of."
The top court's order, made available recently, also refused to accept Bhati's prayer for an open-court hearing in the matter.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by former CJI D Y Chandrachud on February 15 last year scrapped the electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding introduced by the BJP government.
Following the top court's judgement, the State Bank of India, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, shared the data with the election commission which made it public.
The electoral bonds scheme, which was notified by the government on January 2, 2018, was pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring in transparency in political funding.
The top court, on August 2 last year, rejected a batch of pleas including the one filed by Bhati for a court-monitored probe into the electoral bonds scheme and observed it couldn't order a roving inquiry.
The review plea, filed through advocate Jayesh K Unnikrishnan and settled by senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, said on February 15, 2024 the apex court in Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) v. Union of India held the scheme unconstitutional for violating Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
"The effect of declaring the electoral bond scheme and the various statutory provisions as unconstitutional is that the said scheme never existed and is void ab-initio and it is a settled position of law that the court only finds law and it does not make law," it argued.
The verdict in the ADR case, the plea said, rendered the EBS void since inception, and therefore, the subsequent pleas seeking confiscation of the amount collected by political parties could not have been dismissed.
"In the absence of any declaration by this court in the ADR case that the judgement would apply prospectively, the existence of the electoral bond scheme on the date of purchase could not have been the basis for dismissal of the present writ petition. The scheme stood wiped out for all purposes from the date of inception and the necessary consequences must follow,” it added.
The plea said the previous bench's reliance on the existence of parliamentary legislation permitting electoral bonds to dismiss the writ petition constituted an "apparent error on the face of the record".
The ADR judgment did not declare its findings to be prospective, which means the statutory framework supporting electoral bonds should have been treated as invalid from the outset, it contended.
The applicant claimed the verdict had a retrospective effect, rendering the scheme null and void since its inception.
The review plea claimed the August 2, 2024 verdict "indirectly modified the ADR judgment".
The plea said evidence disclosed under court directions indicated a quid pro quo between donations made through the scheme and the benefits received by corporate donors, contradicting the bench's conclusion on the claims being speculative.
"Disclosure of information regarding electoral bonds in terms of the direction of this court clearly establish that there was quid pro quo between the donations made to the political parties and benefits received by the corporate houses and the observation...that the writ petition is based on assumption about quid pro quo between the donor and donee and the petitioner is seeking a roving inquiry, suffers from apparent error," it added.
