A day after he submitted a letter to the Chief Minister requesting that he be not considered for the post of the Lokayukta, the former Kerala High Court Chief Justice S.R. Bannurmath has dismissed the allegations against him as “false, baseless, vitriolic and malicious”.
He was referring to media reports published in October 2011 that showed that he had benefited from the allotment of a site by the Karnataka State Judicial Department House Building Cooperative Society.
Breaking his silence for the first time since those reports appeared, Mr. Bannurmath addressed a press conference here on Tuesday where he read from a prepared statement.
“Till now I had not commented or explained my stand on the comments appearing in the media. But the allegations are day-by-day becoming more and more vitriolic and I feel that the time has now come to reply to these allegations,” he said.
He said, “The first allegation is that the allotment of a site to me in the judicial layout is illegal on the ground that I own another property in Bangalore. I state that I do not own any other property and hence, the allegation is baseless and false.”
To the allegation that the site allotted was reserved for civic amenities, he said, “The portion where my site is located has not been reserved for civic amenities vide BDA approved plan bearing number 503/92 of November 16, 1992, which shows that my site is beyond the park.”
He challenged the position that judges were not eligible for sites in the judicial layout as they are not employees of the Judicial Department. Stating that the allotment was upheld by the Supreme Court and the High Court, he said: “As such the judges of the High Court are also government servants and, therefore, employees of the Judicial Department. The fact that they are regarded as high public functionaries does not disqualify them from getting allotment of sites in the judicial layout.”
‘Not a friend'
He said, “It is known that I belong to the Veerashaiva Lingayat caste and that the former Chief Minister [B.S. Yeddyurappa] also belongs to the same community. Apart from that I would like to make it clear that neither am I related to him nor am I his friend. I have no connection to him, political or otherwise.”
Governor lambasted
Accusing Governor H.R. Bhardwaj of making “false, baseless, reckless and motivated” statements, he said that the Chief Minister had written a letter to the Governor in January clarifying all the allegations against him. “After this detailed reply, now the Governor has given a statement stating that besides the land row, there are other reasons to reject my name which cannot be disclosed. Such vague statements do not give me an opportunity to answer it,” he said.
