Land denotification: SC disposes of plea against BSY

The Supreme Court on Tuesday disposed of a matter arising out of a November 24, 2015, order by the Karnataka High Court’s order that had quashed the sanction granted by previous Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj for prosecution of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

The cases pertained to denotification of land acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

A three-judge bench of Justices A K Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer noted that nothing survived in the special leave petitions filed three years ago.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Yeddyurappa, contended that the petitioner, Sirajin Basha, had approached the governor with a fresh plea for sanction after the high court’s order, while the sanction was granted in some cases and refused in some others.

The petitioner subsequently filed a fresh writ petition against the Governor’s order before the high court, which he now wanted to be transferred to this court, adding that the high court should consider the matter, the counsel pointed out.

Advocate Prashant Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that after the top court’s oral observations made earlier, he approached the Lokayukta court, but it decided to consider the maintainability of the complaint. “There were some troubling observations by the high court, which should be dealt with by this court,” he insisted.

Additional Advocate General Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the state government, contended that the high court had held that there were no reasons cited by the then Governor in granting sanction. “There are at least 10 judgments by this court which stated that it was not mandatory to give reasons in granting sanction for prosecution of public servants,” he said.

The top court, however, decided to dispose of all matters, saying that the high court should decide the pending case on its own merits.

Notably, the HC had cited “uneasy relationship” between then chief minister Yeddyurappa and then governor Bhardwaj and set aside the January 21, 2011 sanction. It had also noted that the governor did not advert to the advice of the council of ministers in granting permission for prosecution of the senior BJP leader in five cases of land denotification.

Subsequently, present Governor Vajubhai Vala had, on December 4, 2015, refused sanction for prosecution of Yeddyurappa. After Basha, the state government filed a special leave petition to challenge the relief granted to the BJP leader.