The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered issue of notices to the State government and the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) on a petition questioning the legality of extending, through amending bylaws, the terms of president and secretary to five years against the mandate of three.
Justice Alok Aradhe passed the order on the petition filed by Ko. Vem. Ramakrishne Gowda, a life member of the (KSP).
It was contended that KSP president Manu Baligar and secretary V.C. Chenne Gowda wanted to continue in office “illegally” even though they were not justified in doing so as they were elected through a democratic election process only for a period of three years.
The petitioner claimed that the bylaw to extend the term was adopted at the special general body meeting of the executive council held at Kota village in Kundapur taluk on March 15, 2018 without following procedure as the KSP members were not properly notified about it.
It was claimed in the petition that extending the tenure was contrary to earlier decisions, as the government in 1986 had constituted a commission and accepted the latter’s report of maintaining three years as the tenure as against the attempts to increase it to five.
It was pointed out that the present executive committee on November 28, 2018, had given an extension of six months when its appeal was pending before the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal against the August 14, 2018, order of the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, who had said that the amended bylaw of extending the tenure would be applicable prospectively and not for the existing office-bearers. The petitioner had also questioned the February 15, 2019 order in allowing the benefit of the amended bylaw on extending the tenure to five years for the present president and secretary.
