The Karnataka High Court has quashed the BJP’s Defamation Case Against Former CM Siddaramaiah over the Congress party’s 2023 “Corruption Rate Card” newspaper advertisements, ending the proceedings against him alone, as the other accused’s petitions were not the subject of the order.
Bengaluru: Siddaramaiah’s criminal petition succeeded on Wednesday, November 4, when the Karnataka High Court allowed it and quashed the criminal defamation case filed by the Karnataka State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the former Chief Minister over the “Corruption Rate Card” advertisements published by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) ahead of the 2023 State Assembly elections [Siddaramaiah v. State of Karnataka & Anr.].
Justice M Nagaprasanna pronounced the operative part of the order in open court, saying the petition was “allowed” and the proceedings “quashed”. A detailed copy of the order is awaited.
Where the case stood before the order
The High Court had earlier stayed the trial court proceedings against Siddaramaiah. In the same complaint case, it had also stayed the trial against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and later extended similar relief to DK Shivakumar and the KPCC. Wednesday’s order brings the proceedings against Siddaramaiah to an end; the separate petitions of the other accused were not the subject of this order.
The BJP has maintained that the advertisements were defamatory, while the Congress leaders have contested the prosecution before the High Court. The reasons for the quashing will be known only once the detailed order is released.
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What the BJP’s complaint said
The private complaint by the State BJP unit is directed mainly at the “Corruption Rate Card” advertisements that the KPCC issued in local newspapers, and at what the complaint called “false campaigning” by the Congress before the 2023 polls. The trial court had taken cognizance of the complaint in 2023.
According to the complaint, the advertisements damaged the BJP’s image by claiming that fixed “rates” and “commissions” were charged for appointments and transfers to posts in government departments. The BJP described these claims as false and the product of the accused’s “fanciful imagination”.
The complaint also pointed to the use of the phrase “trouble engine Sarkar” in place of the popular slogan “double engine Sarkar”, contending that it showed an intention to malign the party and hurt its electoral chances.
Why the order matters
Criminal defamation complaints between rival parties over campaign material have become a recurring feature of Karnataka politics. The quashing of the case against Siddaramaiah ends one strand of a complaint that named several senior Congress figures, and the detailed order is likely to set out how far political advertisements criticising a rival party’s governance can be prosecuted as defamation of a political party.
The ruling also bears on the pending challenges by the other accused, whose trials remain stayed. How the Court has treated the threshold for summoning in election-time speech will be closely watched by both parties.
Case Title: Siddaramaiah v. State of Karnataka & Anr.
Case Number: Criminal Petition No. 9760 of 2025
Bench: Justice M Nagaprasanna, Karnataka High Court
Date of Order: November 4, 2026 (detailed order awaited)