P MAHADEVA PRABHU Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this writ petition has sought for quashing of the resolution passed against him expressing no confidence by the members of the taluk panchayat.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is, the total elected members of the talukpanchayat is 26. Under Section 140 of the panchayath raj act, adhyaksha or upadhyaksha shall be demeed to have vacated his office if a resolution for want of confidence in him is passed by the majority of total number of members at a meeting specially convened. In the case on hand, the total elected members are 26; whereas 13 members have expressed no confidence against the petitioner. According to the petitioner, 13 does not represent the majority from among the total number of members of the taluk panchayat. Four members of the taluk panchayat were disqualified by the election commissioner on the ground that they have violated the whip issued. The said Order was challenged by the petitioner before this court. This court dismissed the said writ petitions confirming the Order of disqualification. As against the Order passed in the writ petitions, the persons who were disqualified preferred writ appeals before the division bench. The division bench pending hearing of the writ appeals passed an interim Order which reads as follows:the above interim Order shows that the persons who were disqualified though ordered to be continued as members have no right to vote in the proceedings of the meeting. If that is so, the said four persons shall not be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the total number of elected persons. Therefore, the total elected members are only 22 excluding the persons whose right to vote have been suspended. From the proceedings it is seen 13 members voted in favour of the resolution. That represents the majority taking into account only 22 are the elected members of the taluk panchayat. Therefore, there is no illegality in the resolution passed against the petitioner and consequently declaring that he has vacated the office.

(3.) ACCORDINGLY, I pass the following order: writ petition is rejected.