Kochi | The Kerala High Court on Thursday sought response of the State Election Commission and the Kerala government on a plea claiming the oath taken by 20 out of the 50 BJP councillors who won in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation poll was invalid.
Justice P V Kunhikrishnan also issued notice to the 20 councillors on the plea which claimed that they took oath in the name of “Gurudeva Namathil”, “Udayannoor Deviyude Namathil”, “Kavilammayde Namathil”, “Bhagavath Namathil”, “Sree Padmanabha Swamyude Namathil”, “Bharathambayude Namathil”, “Ente Prasthanathile Balidanikalude Peril”, etc.
Admitting the plea, the court said "there was some force in the argument" of the petitioner as according to the Third Schedule of the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994, "the oath is to be taken in the name of God/solemnly affirm".
The court said that God may be different for different people.
"Some people may think that, his god is a living person or the guru of a person or a god man. Nobody can blame them because it is their right and discretion. But, whether oath can be taken by a person in the name of a living person, his teacher, god man, etc. who are the god in his perspective, is an important question to be decided.
"Prima facie, I am of the opinion that an arguable case is made out by the petitioner. Therefore, the writ petition is admitted," Justice Kunhikrishnan said.
The court said that the oath taken by the 20 councillors "will be subject to the result of the writ petition".
The BJP wrested the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation from the LDF which had been in power there for 45 years.
