JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Thursday granted an additional time of four weeks to former Chief Minister of Karnataka H D Kumaraswamy and his wife to respond to a petition pertaining to allegations of abuse of position in granting mining lease and allotment of site to private firms.
A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai allowed the plea made by advocate Prashant Kumar, appearing for Kumaraswamy and his wife Anita seeking time to file reply to the special leave petition filed by advocate M Vinod Kumar.
Kumar had challenged the Karnataka High Court order on October 21, which had quashed the proceedings initiated against the couple by the Special Lokayukta Court in its complaint. The case against Kumaraswamy and his wife Anita, JD(S) MLA, were related to renewal of mining lease to the Jantakal Mining Company in alleged violation of norms and irregularities in allotment of sites to Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society, which had made a quid pro quo site allotment to Anita, during Kumaraswamy's tenure as chief minister in 2006.
The HC had termed the cases lodged against the couple as “politically motivated” and had said no misuse of Section 200 of CrPC (pertaining to private complaints) to unleash vendetta and to harass public persons would be allowed.
It had also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh which was to be given to the couple by the complainant.