Council ruckus: Bengaluru State Legislative Council Chairman issues notice to secretary

Bengaluru: State Legislative Council chairman Prathap chandra Shetty has issued notice to Council Secretary K.R. Mahalakshmi to explain within 48 hours the reasons for the ruckus in the upper house on December 15.

The session was adjourned sine die on Tuesday following a pandemonium with Deputy Chairman Dharme Gowda being pulled off from the chair by Congress members when he tried to takeover the proceedings in an attempt to move no-confidence motion against the Chairman.

The ruling BJP has urged the Governor to reconvene the session. However, he is yet to take a decision on the request.

Shetty said in the notice that going by the visuals of the proceedings of that day, it appeared that the secretary was hand in glove with the ruling party.

"While the bell was ringing the doors were locked even before the Chairman could enter. BJP leaders stopped me from entering the house and later allowed the deputy chairman to occupy the chair and the secretary instead of updating the deputy chairman of what was going on, seemed to have gone ahead with the business," the notice said.

While the quorum bell was still ringing, Deputy Chairman Dharme Gowda of JD(S) occupied the Chairman's seat, even before Shetty arrived. Angered by this, the Congress MLCs rushed to the chair demanding that Gowda vacate the seat.

The notice read, "You have acted in violation of the rules and above the scope of your position as the secretary. Why action should not be initiated against you?"

The Council had witnessed a high drama on Tuesday with BJP-JDS and Congress members hurling abuses and pushing each other and Deputy Chairman being pulled down from the Chairman's seat, over a row pertaining to the no-confidence motion sought to be moved against Shetty.

Amid the pandemonium and chaos which many senior members termed as "black mark" and "unprecedented" in the Council's over a century old history, it was adjourned sine-die within minutes after it met for the day.

"The happenings on December 15 including- ruling party members restricting my entry to the House as its Chairman and their conduct against the rules has come under intense criticism in the media, and this has brought disrespect to the legislative council and its traditions which has over a century old history," Shetty said.

He sought a report on the happenings in the Council in order to provide an authentic explanation as the head of the house in response to the criticisms about the ruckus.

The Chairman said on viewing the video recording of the house proceedings of that day, he came across several instances of "dereliction of duty" by the secretary she aided the Deputy Chairman, who had occupied the chair "against rules", by providing him some documents. This was an evidence of dereliction of duty by the Secretary as an officer holding administrative responsibilities of the proceedings, he contended.

He asked the Secretary to provide an explanation within 48 hours as to why action should not be initiated against her under the Karnataka Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules.

The ruckus in the council followed the attempt by the ruling BJP and JD(S) to take up the no-confidence motion against Shetty, despite it not finding mention in the day's agenda.

Shetty had rejected the notice for the motion citing procedural lapses and pointing out that no specific charges were made against him.

However, insisting on going ahead with it, BJP and JD(S) had attempted to take up the motion by having the Deputy Chairman on the chair.

In their defence both parties had said Shetty could not hold the proceedings as Chairman, as the no-confidence was against him. This was resisted strongly by the Congress, resulting in unruly scenes.