SC to hear plea to reopen land case against BSY, DKS

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider next month a plea for reopening a corruption case related to land denotification in Bengaluru in 2010 during earlier stint of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to provide undue benefit to senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde, saying it was ‘surprising’ that the petition filed by NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya in September has yet not come up for hearing.

The counsel said a separate bench had in September permitted the petitioner S R Hiremath to file a special leave petition against the Karnataka High Court’s judgement of December 18, 2015.

In view of his plea, the court fixed the matter for consideration. “List these matters on January 7, 2020, before the appropriate bench subject to curing defects if any,” it ordered.

The NGO had earlier filed an intervention application which was strongly opposed by the counsel from Yeddyurappa and Shivakumar, saying a criminal case can’t be reopened at the instance of a third party. It maintained, since the case was pertaining to corruption and the prosecution by Lokayukta did not proceed, it had intervened in 2016 in pending matter before the top court.

Hiremath then sought to recall the order of February 21, 2019, whereby the petition filed by Kabbalegowda was
‘dismissed as withdrawn’ by mentioning of the matter. Prior to it, first complainant T J Abraham had also withdrawn his petition.

The issue related to the denotification of 4.20 acres of land allegedly in contravention of the Karnataka Restriction of Transfer of Land Act, 1991, and in violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code.

In a special leave petition, Kabbalegowda, a social worker from Ramanagara district, has challenged the Karnataka High Court’s order of December 18, 2015, quashing the proceedings initiated against the leaders as well as Hamed Ali, then working sub-registrar at Bengaluru South taluk, and others. The trial court had on February 5, 2012, taken cognisance of the offences allegedly committed by the accused.