A special leave petition (SLP) was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against a Karnataka High Court judgment quashing the order of sanction granted by the Karnataka Governor for the prosecution of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on the basis of an FIR filed by the Lokayukta police.
The High Court had not only quashed the FIR against Mr. Yeddyurappa but also quashed the order passed by the competent authority — the Governor granting sanction for his prosecution in the alleged mining scam.
Acting on a petition filed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, the High Court quashed the order of sanction primarily on the ground of denial of opportunity, as no hearing was given to him by the competent authority before granting the sanction. In his SLP filed through advocate Prashant Kumar, the complainant before the Lokayukta, Sirajin Basha, said the quashing of the sanction by the competent authority was bad in law and impermissible and against a catena of judgments of the Supreme Court. He said the pendency of complaint filed by him regarding the same transaction involving payment of money by South West Mining Company was made a ground of challenge in the writ petition filed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, but despite this no notice was issued to him.
He said the impugned judgment by recording findings on merit as also by setting aside the sanction granted by the competent authority had potentially affected the trial of five complaint cases before the Lokayukta Court in which summons had been issued to Mr. Yeddyurappa and the other accused.
The SLP said the High Court had had grossly erred by quashing the FIR on ground of denial of opportunity as the FIR required only prima facie material to commence investigation which was very much on record and had been completely ignored by the High Court. Even otherwise, the High Court could not have gone into the sufficiency or insufficiency of evidence, the SLP said and sought quashing of the impugned judgment and an interim stay of its operation.
