SC seeks precedent for hearing plea against relief to BSY

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked an advocate activist to explain why it should hear a transfer petition against Governor Vajubhai Vala’s order to decline sanction for prosecution of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in land scam cases.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre told senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for petitioner Sirajin Basha, to come up with authorities (previous SC judgements) to substantiate his petition for transferring the case from the High Court to the Supreme Court.

Basha, an advocate, has filed a special leave petition against a November 2015 ruling of the Karnataka High Court to quash the sanction given by former Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj for Yeddyurappa’s prosecution. Another advocate K N Balraj has moved the High Court against current Governor Vajubhai Vala’s recent order to refuse sanction for Yeddyurappa’s prosecution. This petition was filed on February 1, 2016.

Basha pleaded the Supreme Court to hear both the SLP and the writ petition together, saying they were closely linked. Ramachandran said the two petitions were intertwined, so the matter pending in the High Court should be transferred to the apex court for consideration.

During the brief hearing, the bench, which initially favoured the High Court to decide the writ petition, gave two weeks’ time to Basha to come out with substantial arguments as to why the apex court should hear the matter.

In November 2015, the High Court cited “uneasy relationship” between then Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and then Governor Bhardwaj and set aside the prosecution sanction given on January 21, 2011. It noted that the Governor did not seek the advice of the council of ministers in granting permission for prosecution the senior BJP leader in five cases of land denotification.

Yeddyurappa had claimed that Bhardwaj had “acrimonious” relations with him and that Basha, who was associated with the JD(S), just walked into Raj Bhavan and got the sanction without following the due process of law.