A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan chose not to intervene in the High Court’s order, advising that all arguments be presented before the High Court.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (21st Aug) upheld a Karnataka High Court decision, which had declined to dismiss a petition filed by Karnataka BJP leader K Shivakumar, contesting the election of Congress MLA NA Haris to the State Legislative Assembly.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan chose not to intervene in the High Court’s order, advising that all arguments be presented before the High Court.
Shivakumar, who had lost to Haris in the 2023 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election from the Shanti Nagar constituency in Bengaluru, had challenged the High Court’s earlier decision on February 12 to continue hearing the case rather than dismissing it outright.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj had rejected an application from Haris seeking dismissal of the case.
Shivakumar’s argument centered on claims that Haris’ nomination papers were unlawfully accepted by the returning officer due to alleged false declarations. Haris countered that no evidence supporting these allegations had been provided, and the High Court maintained that there was no need to demonstrate how these alleged false declarations influenced the election outcome.
Haris then appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, where Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal represented him, and Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar appeared for Shivakumar.
Case Title: NA Haris v K Shivakumar and others
