B M GANGADHARIAH Vs. H D DEVEGOWDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition presented by the petitioner praying for the issue of writ of quo warranto against the respondent, who is the Minister of Public Works and Irrigation of the State of Karnataka, the following question arises for consideration : Whether this Court has jurisdiction under Art.226 of the Constitution of India to issue a writ of quo warranto on the allegation that a person who happens to be a Member of the Council of Ministers of the State had committed a breach of his oath which he had taken under Art.164(3) of the Constitution of India?

(2.) The petitioner is a practising Advocate of this Court. The respondent is a Member of the Council of Ministers of the State. He took his oath of office and became a Minister on 16th Aug., 1988. The petitioner has stated that the respondent was a Member of the Council of Ministers on an earlier occasion also and during the period when he was in office he had given recommendatory letters to several persons recommending to the Chairman of the City Improvement Trust Board, Mysore, to allot sites and that he had admitted on the Floor of the Legislature that he had given such letters and pursuant to those letters sites had been allotted to the persons in whose favour he had given letters of recommendation.

(3.) This admission, the learned Counsel for the petitioner contends, clearly discloses the breach of oath on the part of the respondent, which he is required to take and had taken under Art.64(3) of the Constitution. The said Article reads : -