On September 17 last year, the Supreme Court had sought responses from D K Shivakumar and the Karnataka government regarding a plea against the withdrawal of consent for the CBI probe into the DA case.
New Delhi, January 29: The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned BJP MLA Basangouda R Patil (Yatnal) for challenging the Karnataka government’s decision to withdraw consent given to the CBI for investigating a disproportionate assets (DA) case against Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked senior advocate K Parmeswar, representing the BJP MLA, about the intent behind approaching the top court.
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“Why are you here? For political mileage?”
Justice Surya Kant asked.
In response, Parmeswar argued that the Karnataka government had not yet filed its counter affidavit and insisted that the case was not politically motivated. He emphasized that even the CBI had filed an appeal in the matter.
“This is the disproportionate asset case where the state government withdrew the general consent to prevent the CBI from probing the person, who is now deputy chief minister of the state. With all due respect, this can’t happen,”
he stated.
Kanu Aggarwal, the advocate representing the CBI, also sought permission from the court to present the agency’s submissions regarding the legal aspects of the case.
Due to lack of time, the bench postponed the hearing.
Background of the Case
On September 17 last year, the Supreme Court had sought responses from D K Shivakumar and the Karnataka government regarding a plea against the withdrawal of consent for the CBI probe into the DA case.
Basangouda R Patil had challenged the Karnataka High Court’s order dated August 29, 2024, which had rejected his plea against the government’s decision to withdraw CBI’s consent. The high court had ruled the CBI’s petition as “non-maintainable.”
The court had also dismissed a plea against the Karnataka government’s order dated December 26, 2023, which referred the Rs 74.93 crore DA case to the Lokayukta for investigation instead of the CBI.
The CBI has accused D K Shivakumar of accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018, a period when he was a minister in the Congress-led Karnataka government.
When the BJP came to power in Karnataka, its government gave permission to the CBI to prosecute Shivakumar. However, after the Congress government, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, came to power, it reviewed the previous government’s decision.
On November 23, 2023, the Congress-led Karnataka government declared that the earlier BJP government’s approval for a CBI investigation into Shivakumar’s DA case was “not in accordance with law” and decided to revoke the sanction.
