The hearing on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s request to pursue corruption charges against Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot regarding house plots supplied to his wife by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) was postponed by the Karnataka High Court on Monday until August 29.
A special court that has received two complaints against Siddaramaiah in the case has been instructed by a single-judge panel to postpone all proceedings till the high court issue is resolved. However, according to Justice M. Nagaprasanna, no injunction was issued with the governor’s approval. “Any order that frustrates the proceedings in the HC should not be passed by the lower court,” he declared.
In support of Siddaramaiah, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the Governor had not provided an explanation for the authorisation and had disregarded the state cabinet’s recommendation to deny the request for authorisation to start a probe into the chief minister in the land scam case.
According to Singhvi, on two of the three complaints for which permission to launch lawsuits against the chief minister had been requested, Siddaramaiah had not received a showcause notice. Additionally, he contended that the “friendly Governor” had acted hurriedly rather than thoughtfully when granting sanction.
The senior counsel further contended that as the request was not made by a police officer, as required by the section added to the Act in 2018, it was not eligible for sanction under section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
Additionally, Singhvi said that Section 17 A addresses the authorisation of bringing legal action against public employees for actions taken while they were carrying out their official duties. He said there was no proof that Siddaramaiah had approved his wife’s property grant in 2021, the year the BJP controlled the state.
The senior counsel said that a lot of urgency was shown by the Governor in granting sanction to file a case in a matter that has a history of over 30 years and dates back to a time when Siddaramaiah was not in any position of power to influence decisions.
Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the Governor, argued that his client was within his rights under a 2004 judgment of the Supreme Court in the MP Special Police Establishment case to ignore the advice of the state cabinet on prosecution sanction.
The Governor accorded sanction on August 16 to three private complainants to file court cases seeking an investigation against Siddaramaiah over the 2021 allotment of 14 housing sites in Mysuru to his wife in exchange for 3.16 acre of land acquired from her by MUDA.
“I hereby accord sanction against Chief Minister Sri Siddaramaiah under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 for the commission of the alleged offences as mentioned in the petitions,” the Governor said in a communique released on August 17.
The anti-corruption campaigners T J Abraham, Snehamayi Krishna, and Pradeep Kumar wrote to the governor last month to request permission to bring legal action against the chief minister.
The activists have accused B M Mallikarjun, Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law, of corruption in the 2004 purchase of 3.16 acres of land in Kesare village, Mysuru. B M Mallikarjun then gifted the land to Siddaramaiah’s wife, Parvathy B M, in 2010. In 2021, MUDA exchanged the land for 14 housing sites through a 50:50 scheme. A developed area receives an allotment of land equal to half of the acquired land under the project.
The 50:50 scheme was discontinued by the Siddaramaiah government in October 2023 as a result of growing concerns about vested interests abusing the program, which was introduced during the BJP’s 2020 election.
The government has established two independent probes into the MUDA scam: one led by Venkatachalapathy, an IAS officer, and the other by a one-man committee with a retired Karnataka High Court judge as chairman.
On the other hand, the governor has said that there is cause for concern over the two MUDA scam investigations that were ordered. “Further, the constituting of a committee under an IAS officer and immediately constituting one more committee under a retired Judge of the High Court and the Government’s own acceptance that there is a potential big-ticket scam in the allotment of sites by MUDA does not inspire much confidence,” he wrote in his sanction order.
“It is a well-settled legal principle that the person against whom allegations are made should not be empowered to decide the course of action,” the Governor said.
“Upon perusal of the petition along with the materials in support of the allegations in the petitions and subsequent reply of Sri Siddaramaiah and the advice of the State Cabinet along with the legal opinion, it seems to me that there are two versions in relation to the same set of facts. It is very necessary that a neutral, objective and non-partisan investigation should be conducted. I am prima facie satisfied that the allegations and the supporting materials disclose commission of offences,” his sanction order further stated.
