The Karnataka High Court has upheld the Governor’s sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the case of alleged irregularities in the allotment of sites granted to his wife BM Parvathi in Mysuru.
A single-judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna passed the order on Tuesday, September 24, observing that the case needs investigation, LiveLaw reported.
Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot had sanctioned prosecution against Siddaramaiah on August 17 after three activists filed complaints against him over sites allegedly illegally allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife BM Parvathi in Mysuru. The Congress had protested alleging that the Governor was misusing his post and playing politics.
Justice Nagaprasanna said that the complainants were justified in registering their complaint and seeking the Governor’s approval for prosecution. The judge said that the Governor can act independently, LiveLaw reported.
In an interim order on August 19, the High Court had granted temporary relief to the Chief Minister and directed the special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru to defer action in the case until Siddaramaiah’s plea challenging the sanction was disposed of. In the next hearing on September 9, the Court extended the stay.
Siddaramaiah approached the High Court on August 19, seeking quashing of the sanction, saying that the Governor had acted without application of mind, violating statutory mandates and against Constitutional principles including the advice of the Council of Ministers.
Activists TJ Abraham, Pradeep Kumar SP, and Snehamayi Krishna had alleged, in separate complaints to the Governor, that Siddaramaiah had allegedly abused his authority to obtain sites from the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in Vijayanagar Layout 3rd and 4th Stage, a prime location in Mysuru.
The case itself relates to a plot of land in Mysuru, which had been acquired by MUDA for the development of Devanur Layout 3rd Stage in 1997. Based on a request by the landowner, the CM’s office denotified the land in 1998, but MUDA inexplicably went ahead and developed it. However, in August 2004 Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law purchased the land and gifted it to Parvathi in October 2010.
Parvathi wrote to MUDA in 2014, demanding compensation as the authority had developed her land even though it had not been acquired. Through an order in January 2022, MUDA allotted 14 sites measuring over 38,000 sqft to her as compensation.
Activists and the Opposition BJP have alleged that the allotment was in violation of the law, and that compensatory sites had to be allotted in the same layout that the land was acquired for, and not in any other layouts. They have alleged that Siddaramaiah used his influence to get MUDA to allot sites in Vijayanagar Layout, one of the poshest neighborhoods of Mysuru.