The Supreme Court Today (April 21) deferred its verdict on the plea by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader BS Yediyurappa to quash a land denotification from 2011, after noting that it raised certain legal questions that were already slated to be considered by a larger bench.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India did not give its final decision on a plea filed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa. He had asked the court to cancel a case from 2011 related to the illegal denotification of government land.
The Court said that this matter involved legal issues that are already being studied by a bigger bench of judges in another similar case.
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This case is about allegations that BS Yediyurappa misused his official power when he was the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. He is accused of allowing the illegal denotification of land, which caused heavy losses to the state government. The land was originally taken by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for setting up a hardware park in the Hoovinayakanahalli area of Bengaluru North Taluk.
A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra was supposed to announce whether this case could legally continue. But before doing that, the judges noticed that a similar case was already under review by another bench of the Supreme Court.
“When we were about to start working (on the judgment), we realised there was another order passed by coordinate bench on 16th April 2024 – Shamin Khan vs. Debashish Chakrabarty and Ors – the very same issues are referred to the larger Bench. We felt propriety demands (that this matter also be referred to same Bench)…In this order also, we have formulated the issues, we have said that, while preparing the judgment…we came across an order of this court dated April 16, 2024 passed by coordinate bench…We have reproduced entire order…(In the interest of) judicial disciple, the coordinate bench of this court has refrained from proceeding further in deciding the underlying issue, which is under reference to a larger bench, we deem it appropriate to tag these petitions with the referred matter,”
-the Bench said.
Following this, the Court asked its Registry office to send Yediyurappa’s case to the Chief Justice of India for further orders.
The origin of the case lies in a complaint filed by Alam Pasha. He alleged that Yediyurappa had wrongly used his powers in 2006 to cancel land acquisition that was meant for industrial development. This led to not only misuse of public land but also loss of revenue, as crores of rupees in service and development charges were waived.
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In 2012, the police dropped charges against nine others who were also accused. But they continued to name BS Yediyurappa and another senior politician, then Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, as main accused. Later, a trial court dismissed the complaint, saying there was not enough proof to move forward against them.
Alam Pasha then went to the Karnataka High Court. In 2021, the High Court cancelled the trial court’s dismissal and asked it to continue with the case against Yediyurappa and Naidu.
Yediyurappa then challenged this decision in the Supreme Court.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court judges looked into whether a fresh investigation could be done without government permission, especially under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. After the 2018 amendment, the law says that even if a government servant has left office, permission (sanction) is needed to start prosecution.
The Court also asked whether a second complaint against Yediyurappa, filed just eight days after the first one was rejected, could be allowed only because it had the required sanction.
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Yediyurappa’s lawyer, Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, argued that both complaints were based on the same facts and evidence. He also said the Karnataka High Court had made a mistake by cancelling a related case from 2015 only on technical grounds and not by checking the actual details.
Earlier in 2023, the Karnataka High Court had also dismissed another criminal case from 2015 against Yediyurappa. This case had accused him of illegally denotifying land while he was Deputy CM, based on a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
The High Court said that the case could not move forward because a similar matter had already been examined by another bench. It also said that a CAG report by itself is not strong enough to start a criminal case.
CASE TITLE:
B.S YEDDIYURAPPA v. A ALAM PASHA & ORS.
Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.520/2021
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