Supreme Court notice to BS Yeddyurappa in land case

The FIRs were registered following a complaint filed by one Jayakumar Hiremath based on CAG report in 2012.

Update: 2016-07-12 22:24 GMT
B.S. Yeddyurappa, State BJP president

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to respond to Karnataka government’s appeal challenging a High Court order quashing all the FIRs against Mr. Yeddyurappa for alleged illegal denotification of lands based on CAG report.

A Bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri also issued notice on the application seeking stay of the High Court judgment after hearing counsel Joseph Aristotle for the State. The Bench directed the matter to be listed after four weeks.

The FIRs were registered following a complaint filed by one Jayakumar Hiremath based on CAG report in 2012 – on denotification of land by government and allotment of sites by Bangalore Development Authority. The complaint was filed with the Lokayukta by Hiremath in 2014.

In its appeal, the State said the High Court judgment quashing the FIRs has resulted in miscarriage of justice. The matter being of great public importance where there is an enormous loss to the exchequer, continuation of the probe to avoid further loss. The police attached to the Karnataka Lokayukta is authorised  to investigate into the offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. There is no restriction on the source of information disclosing a cognizable offence.

The State said the High Court had erred in quashing the FIRs and the consequent action of the Lokayukta police in registering cases without there being any challenge to the orders of Lokayukta and in particular when the accused had given up the grounds against the Lokayukta in respect of entertaining the complaint based on CAG report. 

Faulting the High Court verdict, the appeal said the direction that the CAG report shall not be used if any action is contemplated against the former CM is erroneous and contrary to the facts and circumstances of the case. It also said the high Court had erred in holding that Lokayukta had no power to direct registration of criminal cases.

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