Prajwal Revanna Disqualification: Karnataka High Court Reserves Order On Plea To Stay Verdict Till He Approaches Supreme Court

The Karnataka High Court on Friday reserved its order on an application filed Prajwal Revanna of the Janatha Dal Secular Party, seeking stay on its order dated September 1, declaring his election as Member of Parliament as null and void, for filing false information in his election affidavit.

Prajwal sought time in order to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

A single bench of Justice K Natarajan heard the parties and reserved its order saying “The order is reserved, it will be pronounced either on Monday or Tuesday.”

In its September 1 order, the court said, “Both the Election petitions are allowed in part. The election of returned candidate respondent no. 1 alias Prajwal R, Member of the Parliament, having being declared as returned candidate dated 23-05-2019, is hereby declared as null and void.”

However, it had rejected the prayer to declare A Manju (one of the petitioners) as the returned candidate, in view of the findings that he himself is involved in corrupt practices.

The court had also issued notice to H.D.Revanna father of the MP and held that he was involved in corrupt practices in helping Prajwal. It said "Therefore, it is necessary to issue notice to H.D.Revanna and Suraj Revanna to show cause as to why they should not be so named as per Section 99(a)(ii) of R.P. Act.

Petitioner A Manju who is now with the JD(S) party did not oppose the application, while counsel for the second petitioner contended that if the order is stayed the benefit will be extended to others also found to have been indulged in corrupt practices.

However, the court orally pointed out that as per the statute the court in its discretion can stay its order for a period of 30 days to permit the respondent to file an appeal before the court.

Revanna had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Hassan and was accused of giving false information to the Election Commission. Prajwal was declared the winner with 6,76,606 votes. Manju came as the runner-up, with 5,35,282 votes.

Case Title: A MANJU And PRAJWAL REVANNA @ PRAJWAL R.

Case No: EP 1/2019 C/W EP 2/2019.