BENGALURU: A single judge of the Karnataka High Court will take the petition filed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah questioning the legality of the sanction given by Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot to prosecute him in connection with an alleged scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) for hearing at 2.30 pm, subject to orders of the Chief Justice N V Anjaria.
When proceedings commenced at 10.30 am, senior advocate prof Ravivarma Kumar mentioned the matter about the petition filed by Siddaramaiah before Justice Hemanth Chandangoudar, citing urgency.
Justice Chandangoudar then said that the matter will be taken up at 2.30 pm if there is urgency, subject to orders of the Chief Justice. If no urgency, it will be taken up tomorrow. In reply, prof Ravivarma Kumar submitted that there is urgency.
Anticipating that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will approach the Karnataka High Court against the sanction granted by Governor Gehlot, an applicant prior to the Governor filed the caveat before the High Court on Saturday.
Immediately a few hours after the sanction was granted, the applicant, Pradeep Kumar S P, one of the three persons who approached the Governor seeking sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Samhita, filed the caveat.
Meanwhile, as expected, Siddaramaiah filed the petition through his counsel before the Karnataka High Court on Monday questioning the legality of the sanction. On what grounds the petition was filed is yet to be known.
Now, with the filing of the caveat, the high court will have to hear the caveator also before passing any orders on the petition filed by Siddaramaiah.
Apart from Pradeep Kumar, social activists Snehamayi Krishna from Mysuru and T J Abraham from Bengaluru have also sought sanction from the Governor, who has given sanction accepting their requests. Kumar had approached Governor Gehlot to get the sanction even before filing the complaint.
The special court to try cases against sitting and former MPs/MLAs was hearing the private complaint filed by Krishna and Abraham to know whether they had made a prima facie case to accept the complaints for hearing. A prior sanction was necessary to entertain the complaints is one of the major contention being argued before the special court.
The further hearing on the complaints filed by Krishna and Abraham is to be continued on August 20 and 21, respectively.
