oppn parties Will His Disqualification Order Stand Judicial Scrutiny?

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Will His Disqualification Order Stand Judicial Scrutiny?

By Sunil Garodia

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly, KR Ramesh Kumar, has disqualified the remaining 14 MLAs whose resignations were pending before him. He had earlier disqualified three other MLAs who had similarly resigned. Coming just a day before the trust vote in the assembly, the move will bring relief for the BJP as now there is no question of the rebel MLAs changing their mind or the Congress-JD(S) alliance (does it still exist?) prevailing upon them to do so. But the MLAs will not be able to get any immediate rewards as they will now not be able to become ministers in the BJP government till they are reelected. The Speaker has tried to close the route of reelection too by barring them from contesting elections till the end of the term of the present assembly but that is not entirely legal and will be subject to judicial review.

The rebels have decided to go to court as they claim that the Speaker is acting as per a script authored by the Congress-JD(S) alliance. Since there is no clarity in the 10th Schedule of the Constitution on whether the disqualified MLAs can contest the bypolls that will be held on the seats from which they had won and the time limit for which they stand disqualified, it remains to be seen how the courts look at the Speaker's order.  The issue came to light in the recent past when the AIADMK rebels were similarly disqualified. At that time, OP Rawat, the Chief Election Commissioner had said that they can contest the bypolls as they were disqualified from their present membership only. While electoral laws always specify the period for which a person is to be disqualified, the anti-defection law does not. Hence, experts hold different views on the subject and the matter will have to be settled by the courts till the 10th Schedule is amended to bring clarity.

If the purpose of the 10th Schedule was to prevent defections for rewards (which it should have been, otherwise it serves no real purpose), then the disqualification must always be for the remaining term of the assembly. That would mean that the MLAs will not be able to contest the bypolls from their seats or from any other seat till the current assembly serves out its term or is otherwise dissolved and fresh elections are held. But it also seems that the Speaker has not taken the sequence of events into consideration while pronouncing his decision. The MLAs resigned first and only after that did the alliance issued a whip for them to attend the assembly. So if their resignations were in order, they should have been accepted. The Speaker has not denied that all the resignations were not in order, so there is no legal basis for his decision if the timeline of events is followed. The courts will have to interpret the law and settle the matter.

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