The Supreme Court Today (Nov 4) adjourned by four weeks the hearing on a plea against the withdrawal of consent to the CBI for probing a DA case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan deferred the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had also filed an appeal against the Karnataka High Court order.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court deferred by four weeks the hearing on a petition related to the withdrawal of consent for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into a disproportionate assets (DA) case involving Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
This decision came as the apex court bench, comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, responded to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s submission that the CBI had also filed an appeal against the Karnataka High Court’s earlier ruling.
The plea was initially filed by BJP MLA Basangouda R Patil (Yatnal), who challenged the Karnataka High Court‘s August 29 decision. This decision had dismissed his plea against the state government’s withdrawal of consent for the CBI to investigate the case.
During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that the CBI’s appeal had not yet been listed for hearing. Simultaneously, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, requested additional time to file a response in the case.
The Supreme Court had previously, on September 17, issued a notice to both Shivakumar and the Karnataka state government based on the plea filed by Yatnal.
The core issue revolves around a CBI petition challenging the Karnataka Congress government’s decision to withdraw its consent for the agency to probe the DA case. On August 29, the Karnataka High Court had ruled the CBI’s plea as “non-maintainable.”
The case under dispute centers around the Karnataka government’s November 23, 2023 order referring the alleged Rs 74.93 crore disproportionate assets case to the Lokayukta for investigation instead of the CBI. The CBI had claimed that Shivakumar accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income during the period from 2013 to 2018, when he served as a minister in the Congress-led state government.
Subsequently, when the BJP formed the government in Karnataka, it granted permission for the CBI to pursue the prosecution of Shivakumar. However, after the Congress returned to power under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in May 2023, the newly elected government deemed the previous BJP administration’s consent to the CBI as “illegal” and revoked it on November 23, 2023.
For context, the origins of the case date back to September 25, 2019, when the then BJP-led Karnataka government allowed the CBI to register an FIR against Shivakumar over allegations of corruption and disproportionate assets.
In response, Shivakumar approached the High Court, filing a writ petition before a single-judge bench to challenge the CBI’s action. However, on April 4, 2023, the single-judge bench dismissed his petition, prompting Shivakumar to file an appeal before a division bench of the High Court.
Amid these legal developments, the Congress government took office in May 2023 and formally withdrew the consent for the CBI probe on November 28, 2023. By that time, Shivakumar had already been appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka.
This withdrawal was subsequently challenged by both the CBI and Yatnal in the Karnataka High Court. They also contested the state’s decision in December 2023 to transfer the allegations against Shivakumar to the Karnataka Lokayukta for investigation.
Ultimately, on August 29, 2023, the Karnataka High Court dismissed these challenges, which has now led to the ongoing appeals by Yatnal and the CBI before the Supreme Court.
Click Here to Read Previous Reports on D K Shivakumar
FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE FOR MORE LEGAL UPDATES
