Union Minister of Major Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 25, 2025) declined to intervene in a case accusing Union Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy of misusing his office as then Karnataka Chief Minister for pecuniary gains and illegally denotifying two parcels of land measuring over two acres at Hallage Vaderahalli village in 2007.
“Why did you suddenly do this denotification… It has to be investigated… There may be no bad intentions, but it has to be investigated,” Justice Dipankar Datta, heading a Bench comprising Justice Rajesh Bindal, addressed senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and advocate Balaji Srinivasan, appearing for Mr. Kumaraswamy.
The plots in question were acquired from the owner and possession handed over to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in September 1999.
Subsequently, according to the State, the owner executed sale deeds in favour of third parties in contravention of the Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act, 1991. Following which the owner had given a representation to the Chief Minister to denotify the land. The request was strongly objected to by the BDA in a communication in December 2005.
The State’s case was that Mr. Kumaraswamy allegedly used his powers as the Chief Minister to issue a denotification order on October 1, 2007 without placing the request before the de-notification committee.
Private complaint
A private complaint was filed and a Special Judge trying cases against MPs and MLAs ordered it to be investigated by the Lokayukta Police in 2012 under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Karnataka Land (Restriction of Transfer) Act.
Mr. Kumarswamy’s challenge against the case was dismissed by both the State High Court and later the apex court itself in 2016.
However, a closure report on the case was filed, incidentally when Mr. Kumaraswamy returned as Chief Minister in 2018. The Special Judge had however rejected the closure report and summoned him in 2019.
He had also challenged the summons in the High Court, which had noted that the charges against him were serious and found no ground to interfere. This led Mr. Kumaraswamy to approach the Supreme Court primarily on the ground that he was a public servant and the trial could not proceed without a valid sanction to prosecute him.
On Tuesday, Mr. Rohatgi said an amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2018 protected him from prosecution and the case ought to be quashed.
Justice Datta said the requirement of sanction was to protect public servants from being entangled in frivolous complaints. Justice Bindal pointed out that the closure report in the case was filed when Mr. Kumaraswamy became Chief Minister for the second time.
“He is a former Chief Minister. He cannot get away saying denotification was an error and everything else was an error,” Justice Datta said at one point.
Senior advocate Harin Rawal along with Karnataka Additional Advocate General Aman Panwar argued that no protection of sanction ought to be extended to Mr. Kumarswamy as he has ceased to hold the office of Chief Minister. They further contended that the amendment of 2018 cannot be used to seek protection to crime committed before it came into force.
Published – February 25, 2025 09:34 pm IST