In a relief to BJP Vice-President BS Yeddyurappa, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday not only quashed as many as 15 FIRs in land cases registered by Lokayukta police but also issued a direction not to register any case against him using the CAG report as a premise.
Times of India reported that, the single bench of Justice Rathnakala quashed the proceedings against him in FIRs registered by Lokayukta police in June 2015 on cases relating to alleged denotification of BDA-acquired lands at Bilekahalli, Halagavadera halli, JB Kaval and other places in Bengaluru city when he was the chief minister.
The FIRs were registered based on a complaint lodged by RTI activist Jayakumar Hiremath to Lokayukta in 2012 based on the CAG report on denotification of land acquired by government for allotment of sites by the BDA. The report has documented 21 cases of illegal denotification.
According to Yeddyurappa’s petition, it is not right for the Lokayukta police to launch prosecution based on the CAG report as it the property of the legislature and hence the legislature should take a decision in the matter, reported Indian Express.
The Indian Express reported that, the CAG has claimed that if an organ of the state, including the judiciary, made use of the report then it would be against the constitution, which states that the report is meant for treatment either by Parliament or the legislature.
In November 2015, HC had set aside the sanction for prosecution given in five cases of alleged illegal denotification of land acquired by the Yeddyurappa led government. It had asked the state's Governor Vajubhai Vala to take a fresh a look at the permissions given by former Governor HR Bharadwaj to prosecute Yeddyurappa.
In 2011, Bharadwaj wrote to the Chief Minister saying that the Cabinet resolution urging his to not give permission for the prosecution of the Chief Minister was “unwarranted”.
This is an aggregated report from the Indian Express and Times of India