The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Friday moved the High Court of Karnataka questioning registration of three first information reports (FIRs) against him on complaints of alleged illegal denotification of land acquired for the formation of layouts by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda, though refused to stay the FIR at this stage, said he would consider the plea next week when the petitions would be taken up for hearing. Has any original owner of the acquired land benefited from denotification of the land from acquisition?
The judge posed this question when it was pointed out to the court by a Senior Counsel representing Mr. Yeddyurappa that every Chief Minister of the State would have to be before the court for next 10–15 years to face prosecution for denotifying the land in favour of the land-owners if complaints of this nature were to be allowed.
‘Procedural lapses’
“In all the denotification cases it is the middlemen who benefit … only the builders and developers and land sharks benefited from the denotifications and not the original land-owners…,” observed Mr. Justice Gowda while adjourning further hearing.
Contending that there were serious procedural lapses in the registration of the FIRs, it was claimed in the petitions that the complaints were lodged based on the 2012 report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India finding fault in denotification of acquired land and allotment of sites by the BDA. It was claimed in the petition that the CAG did not recommend any of criminal prosecution and, moreover, it was not permissible to launch prosecution based on the CAG report, which is a property of the State legislature.
