Legal options before Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, whose petition challenging the Governor’s approval for an investigation against him in the site-sharing case was rejected on Tuesday, include an appeal before a division bench of the Karnataka High Court as well as a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.
Siddaramaiah is facing an investigation on allegations of illegality in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife in a prime location of Mysuru city by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the Karnataka Chief Minister said that he would not hesitate with the probe and would discuss the matter with legal experts. He added: “On my writ petition, the High Court has given its verdict. The governor sanctioned the prosecution and I asked about it in the Supreme Court. After arguments, the verdict was given today and I have seen it through the media. I have not read the entire verdict and will give it full details later.
Congress insiders said the chief minister sought a legal opinion, but no move was made to ask Siddaramaiah to step down from his post.
“Let’s wait. A SIT has been set up to investigate the matter. There is also an option to appeal to a higher court. There is nothing to say that the chief minister is guilty or any report to indicate that. This is the decision of the court which states to investigate if there are any irregularities. Let’s see what they reveal,” said a senior Congress minister on condition of anonymity.
Ministers and senior Congress leaders have expressed support for Siddaramaiah, insisting that he had no role in the illegal charges.
Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said: “The chief minister is innocent and he will come clean despite the investigation.”
Senior Congress leader Santosh Lad told News18: “All 136 MLAs are standing behind our chief minister. This is a clear conspiracy by the BJP to attack and undermine Siddaramaiah, but the plan will not succeed. This case is baseless, and the investigation will prove it.”
Soon after Justice M Nagaprasanna rejected Siddaramaiah’s petition seeking a stay on the sanction given by Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot in the MUDA case, the CM, Shivakumar, and all the Congress MLAs gathered at the chief minister’s official residence, Kaveri, to discuss the next step.
What was the choice before Siddaramaiah?
Alok Prasanna Kumar, co-founder and leader of the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, outlined two legal options. “The first option is to file a court appeal in the Karnataka High Court and have a division bench hear the matter. The second option is to file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court,” said Prasanna, adding that the Supreme Court usually does not entertain SLPs if there are legal alternatives.
“Most likely, he will be before the division bench and appeal,” the lawyer concluded.
According to the Karnataka High Court judgement, the Governor’s decision to grant permission for the investigation is independent and within his authority. This paved the way for an investigation to start against Siddaramaiah.
The Supreme Court also rejected a plea to stay the verdict on Tuesday and vacate the interim order, which ordered the special court to postpone a decision on the complaint against Siddaramaiah.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted interim relief to Siddaramaiah by directing a special court in Bengaluru to stay further proceedings and not take any action based on the sanction given by the Governor to the complainants Abraham TJ from Bengaluru and Snehamayi Krishna from Mysuru.
The Congress government condemned the Governor, accusing him of “acting on behalf of the Central government, which is trying to undermine the state government by using the Governor”, Siddaramaiah said. He further said that if there were serious cases against Kumaraswamy, Jolle, Reddy, and Nirani, the Governor did not give prosecution in those cases, but in Siddaramaiah’s case, he sanctioned it even before the preliminary inquiry was conducted.
Siddaramaiah’s firm stance is backed by the cabinet and the legislature party, with central Congress leaders supporting him.
Siddaramaiah has consistently admitted that he had “no role whatsoever” in the transfer of 3.16 acres of land by his brother-in-law Mallikarjun Swamy to his wife BM Parvathi.
The chief minister did not attend the three cabinet meetings held on August 1, August 8, and August 22 where the MUDA case was discussed. The meeting was chaired by Shivakumar.
During the meeting, the cabinet “generally expressed solidarity” against the “illegal decision of the Governor to prosecute.” It also stated that, in addition to sanctioning, which is “completely unconstitutional and illegal,” the Governor’s actions violated the Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Government of India for processing cases under section 17 (A) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Political analyst Sandeep Shastri said that the image that Siddaramaiah enjoyed of being corruption-free has now been shattered with the verdict from the HC.
“There will be no immediate change in Karnataka as the Congress Party does not want to indicate that they are changing the chief minister based on this development. However, we cannot rule out the possibility of a change in leadership in the future,” Shastri told News18.
