S. RAJENDRAN Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two writ petitions have been filed by Mr. S. Rajendran, Ex-M.L.A. and Mr. P. Kodandaramaiah, retired IPS Officer and former Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), challenging the nomination of the respondents namely, Mr. V.S. Ugrappa, Mr. K. Abdul Jabbar, Dr. Jayamala Ramachandran, Mr. Ivan D'Souza and Mr. Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi by the Governor to the Karnataka Legislative Council of the State under the provisions of Article 171(5) of the Constitution of India. The petitioners have sought to raise a contention in these two writ petitions that none of these respondents satisfies the criteria and qualification delineated under Article 171(5) of the Constitution of India. Comparing the previous composition of the Legislative Council in paragraph 5 of W.P. No. 32141 of 2014, the petitioners have given some names along with their cultural and literacy background and have submitted that none of the present respondents nominated by the Governor of the State under Article 171 of the Constitution of India has such qualifications and merely because of their affiliation of a political party, they have been so nominated to the Legislative Council. The Upper House of the State Legislature, which is suppose to be the Think Tank of the State, therefore, only the persons with such high background of art, culture, social service and literature etc., should be so nominated.

(2.) On the other hand, Mr. A.G. Shivanna, Additional Advocate General and other learned Counsels appearing for the respondents have raised a preliminary objection about the maintainability of the present writ petitions referring to Article 163 of the Constitution of India. The learned Additional Advocate General submitted before the Court that it is the discretion of the Governor of the State to nominate the remainder of the member as per Article 171(3) of the Constitution of India, which prescribes the total number of Legislative Council of the State and sub-clause (c) thereof, gives a discretion of the Governor of the State to nominate such number of member as per clause (5), which, in turn stipulates that such persons nominated under clause (3)(e) of Article 171 of the Constitution of India, should be the persons having the special knowledge or practical experience in the field of Science, Art, Literature, co-operative movement and social service and therefore, the learned Counsels have submitted that the present petitions are not maintainable and deserves to be dismissed at the threshold.

(3.) The relevant Articles 163 and 171 of the Constitution of India are quoted below for ready reference: