Karnataka High Court allows elected body of Karnataka Medical Council 2020 to assume charges of office

Bengaluru: Emphasizing that a writ court, lacking jurisdiction cannot overturn elections to a statutory body, the Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka High Court has allowed the candidates elected to the governing body of the Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) in 2020 to take charge and complete their term from the date they assumed the office.

This ruling overturned the judgment of a single judge on June 7, 2021, who had invalidated the election results, citing fraud by the Returning Officer (RO), a Joint Registrar of the Department of Cooperative Societies.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Kalaburgi bench of the High Court in its June 7 order had observed that the KMC election got vitiated owing to the 'illegal' conduct of the Returning Officer and thus the court had quashed the election held in January 2020. Further, the court directed the State and Council to work together and conduct re-election to the council within six months from the date of order.

Also read- Karnataka Medical Council 2020 Elections Quashed

Apart from this, the High Court bench had also directed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Returning Officer and has asked the State to entrust the proceedings to the Lokayukta, who would submit a report regarding the same to the State. Afterwards, the State would consider the report and pass appropriate orders regarding the matter.

The Court was considering a petition filed, under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, by one member of the Council who challenged the action of the Returning Officer, in not acting upon the list of members for election to the Members of Council as furnished by the Council and sought a direction for preparation of electoral list and conduct of elections by the law.

A division bench of the Karnataka High Court in September 2021 had stayed the previous order till September 22. Noting that the list of voters prepared by the Returning officer included many of whom were dead and observing that the officer didn't notify about the list on the KMC website as per the rules, the Court had stated, "Therefore, the defence in several paragraphs of the affidavit is circumstance enough to hold that the action of the Returning Officer was illegal, highhanded, and would resultantly get vitiated by fraud," as reported by Medical Dialogue team.

In response to the aforementioned verdict, the Division Bench comprising Justices R Devdas and C M Joshi recently emphasized that only an election tribunal has the authority to declare elections or results as void or illegal. Hench, the elected candidates should be permitted to take charge. 

The Division Bench made this decision in response to appeals filed by Dr Madhusudhan Kariganoor and 11 others who were elected in the contested elections, along with the returning officer Pandurang Garage challenging the single bench's decision. They argued that only an election tribunal, specifically constituted for the purpose, has the authority to declare an election or its results void or illegal.

Hence, the Bench emphasized that the single judge did not have the jurisdiction to annul the final voters' list published by the Returning Officer or declare the election results null and void.

The Bench acknowledged that concerns regarding the validity of the voters' list and other related issues can be addressed through an election petition. As a result, it allowed the reopening of an earlier election petition that had been closed following the single judge's ruling.

During the proceedings, it came to light that some aggrieved individuals had initially filed an election petition, but the state government had closed it in light of the single bench's decision, DH reports.

Given that the period to file such petitions has expired, the bench has allowed the petitioner from the single bench to join the case along with others who had filed the election petition.

Also read- Verdict Quashing KMC Elections Stayed Till September 22 By HC