In a temporary relief to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the High Court of Karnataka has ordered a special court in Bengaluru, to defer further proceedings on complaints related to alleged irregularities in allotment of sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
The special court shall not precipitate complaint related to the sanctions granted by the Governor against Siddaramaiah till further orders, the High Court said. Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the interim order on a petition filed by Siddaramaiah.
Two private complaints had sought investigation against Mr. Siddaramaiah and others in the allotment of sites to the Chief Minister’s wife by the MUDA.
In his petition, the Chief Minister questioned the legality of the sanction granted by the Governor permitting investigation against him under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and prosecution under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.
The High Court found it necessary to pass an interim order after it was pointed out that the Special Court of Sessions for criminal cases against former and present MPs and MLAs was scheduled to pass an order on August 20 on whether to entertain one of the two complaints filed against Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot granted sanction on August 17 on the applications filed by two Bengaluru-based social activists Pradeep Kumar S.P. and T.J. Abraham, and Mysuru-based Snehamayi Krishna.
If the concerned special court passes any order on August 20, it would undoubtedly frustrate the subject proceedings on the petition… Therefore, I deem it appropriate to direct the concerned special court to defer the proceedings and direct no precipitative action be taken pursuant to the sanction, till the next date of hearing,” observed Justice Nagaprasanna in his order.
Earlier, appearing for Siddaramaiah, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the Governor’s decision was arbitrary and suffered from non-application of mind as the Governor did not provide any reason for not following or differing with the view of the Cabinet, which had advised him to reject the application seeking grant of sanction.
Siddaramaiah’s petition said that the Governor had failed to consider the detailed and comprehensive response submitted by the Chief Secretary on July 27, and by the Cabinet, on August 1, which highlighted numerous factual and legal infirmities in the application of sanction filed by Mr. Abraham.
The Governor failed to even notify and inform Mr. Siddaramaiah about the applications filed by Krishna and Pradeep Kumar, and the petitioner was completely left in the dark about the two applications, the petition said while pointing out that the Governor had issued show-cause notice only on the application filed by Abraham.
Claiming that the Governor acted in a tearing hurry, bypassing constitutional requirements and procedures to grant sanction against Siddaramaiah, Singhvi contended that the Governor’s selective urgency in entertaining Abraham’s application reflected clear bias as several other applications for grant of sanction, including those involving high-profile individuals like Janardhan Reddy, Shahikala Jolle and Basavaraj Bommai [all from the BJP], were pending before the Governor for a long period.
However, appearing for the Governor, Solicitor-General of India Tushar Mehta, in a brief submission, made it clear to the High Court that “no application is pending, as on today, on the table of the Governor, awaiting such sanction”.
Mehta also said the Governor only granted permission to investigate the offence and requested the court not to pass any order interdicting the grant of sanction to investigate or prosecute at this stage.
While contending that sanction under Section Section 17A of the PC Act can be given only to the police officer for investigation, Singhvi argued that the Governor ought not to have granted sanction based entirely on an application made by a private person with vested interests as no police officer has made any application for grant of sanction.
Further hearing of the petition has been adjourned till August 29.
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