High Court dismisses BSY?pleas

Bangalore: In a setback to former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyur­appa, the Karna­taka High Court on Friday dismissed his two appeals seeking to quash two private complaints (5&6) filed against him by advocate Sirajin Basha alleging pecuniary advantage received by M/s. Davalagiri Property Developers Private Ltd, promoted by the kin of Yeddyurappa.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice B.V. Nagarathna, in their judgment, running into 165 pages, dismissed the two appeals by terming them as not maintainable and upheld the order of the single judge. In May the single judge had dismissed the petitions on the ground that they lacked merit.

The former CM and KJP leader had appealed before the division bench that “while affirming the order of the learned single judge in other aspects, we would only differ with regard to the observations made on the doctrine of election stayed by the single judge in Part No.5 of the impugned order. Accordingly appeals are dismissed.”

The complaints had accused Yeddyurappa, his sons and others with criminal breach of trust for illegally denotifying land measuring 11.25 acres at Sy No. 15/1, 15/2, of Srirampura village for the benefit of Besto infrastructure Bangalore Pvt Ltd and illegal allotment of site No.1 to his son B.Y. Raghavendra and Site No.2 to Bharati Shetty, MLC, in RMV – II Stage.

The Karnataka HC on Friday took state government to task over the plight of Endosulfan victims. The court sarcastically questioned on why such poisonous insecticide is still being dumped in the country.

The court expressed displeasure when the advocate sought compensation from the state for the victims. It observed, “Why should the state alone compensate the victims? It is the companies which are producing the poison, for profits by working against the interest of the public. The state should also work in directions towards securing compensation for the victims from the companies which are producing Endosulfan.”