BS Yeddyurappa land denotification case: Supreme Court to hear arguments on July 25

The Supreme Court on Monday decided to hear in July the arguments on a plea against Karnataka High Court verdict quashing an order sanctioning prosecution of former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in a land denotification matter.

A bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer said it proposed to hear the matter and examine the issue in its entirety.

“We propose to hear the matter as it is. We will examine it in entirety and decide it either way,” the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on July 25.

The apex court had in August last year asked petitioner Sirajin Basha to prove his bonafide in filing the petition challenging the high court verdict quashing the order granting sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa in connection with denotification of land acquired for the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

His counsel had said that a private party complaint was maintainable and the Karnataka High Court had wrongly quashed the order of then Governor H R Bhardwaj according sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa in the matter.

He had said the then Governor’s order was not discussed by the high court which had referred the matter to the new Governor for reconsideration.

In November 2015, the high court had quashed the January 21, 2011 order issued by then Governor Bhardwaj and said there was no explanation why he had accorded sanction in favour of prosecution.

The court had said as the complaint was a private one, “great caution and proper application of mind was necessary, particularly (on) the uneasy relationship between then chief minister and governor”.

The high court had last year quashed 15 FIRs filed against the senior BJP leader for alleged illegal denotification of lands, based on a CAG report.

These FIRs were registered following a complaint filed by one Jayakumar Hiremath based on the CAG report in 2012 on denotification of land by government and allotment of sites by the BDA.