HC grants time to State, CAG to file objections in BSY case

The High Court on Thursday granted time to the State government and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to file their objections with regard to the petition filed by former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa seeking quashing of FIRs filed against him by the Lokayukta police.

During the hearing, Justice A N Venugopala Gowda observed that even before the legislature could debate on the subject in the CAG report, a complaint has been registered and criminal action was initiated. Even before the report has been accepted in the Parliament, there have been many instances of PILs being filed.   The bench said that its order of not arresting the petitioner will continue till the next date of hearing.

The court granted permission to the counsels, representing the CAG and the State government, to research on the subject as the bench had ordered notice only on Tuesday and reasonable time was not given for broader arguments.

The court adjourned the hearing till Aug 25
 
Yeddyurappa, in his petition, contended that the FIR was not filed as per Section 12 of the Lokayukta Act, which calls for a compliance report to be placed before the Governor. Only after the Governor gives consent, an FIR can be filed. Secondly, the complaints about denotification and subsequent FIRs filed by Lokayukta is based on the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report and not based on the PAC (Public Accounts Committee) report which is normally placed before the floor of the House to decide on the matter. The CAG report had mentioned that the land has been denotified but it did not say that it was illegal, the petitioner contended

Moreover, CAG had to file details of denotified land from 1995 but they have filed report from 2007-2011 only. The Lokayukta police had filed FIRs against Yeddyurappa in connection with the denotification of land located on survey numbers 251 in Halagevaderanahalli in Bengaluru South, 5/1 and 6/3 in Bilekahalli and 117 in JB Kaval.

The petitioner has further contended that Lokayukta has filed the FIR based only on the complaint registered by a private person Jayakumar S Hiremath.