In a big relief for Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Karnataka High Court order which directed a trial court to proceed against in a corruption case of allegedly denotifying some land to benefit private parties.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, hearing the Chief Minister's appeal against the HC order rejecting his plea seeking quashing of the criminal case, issued the notice and stayed the proceedings against him.
The HC had directed the special trial court to take cognisance of offences against Yediyurappa and proceed further in the matter on the basis of a charge sheet filed by the Lokayukta Police in 2012.
The private complaint against Yediyurppa alleged that during his tenure as the Chief Minister from 2008-12, he illegally de-notified 20 acres from land acquisition proceedings to give undue favours to private parties.
The case pertains to a parcel of land acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (a government body) in 2006 to set up a hardware park in Hoovinayajanahalli in north Bengaluru, which was subsequently denotified. The allegation against the Chief Minister is that he had misused his public office for this purpose and in turn caused a loss to the public exchequer.
Incidentally the same charge sheet had mentioned similar allegations against his then cabinet minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, regarding denotification of a land parcel in Nelamangala taluk in greater Bengaluru.
This is not the only denotification case against Yediyurappa. In some of the cases, he has got similar relief from higher courts.
In another case, where the HC had allowed trial to go in is for alleged denotification of land notified for IT parks in and around Bellandur and Devarabisanahalli. In that case, the complainant, Vasudeva Reddy, had filed a private complaint in the Lokayukta special court in 2013, wherein he had stated that Yeddyurappa ordered the denotification of four acres 30 guntas in survey number 49 in Devarabisanahalli and survey numbers 10, 18, 46/1 in Bellandur. He further alleged that following denotification, the lands were diverted for residential purpose.