Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Nov 25: In a big relief to former Karnataka chief minister and national vice president of BJP, B S Yeddyurappa, the state high court (HC), through a verdict delivered on Tuesday November 24, cancelled the permission granted by the then state governor, H R Bhardwaj, to prosecute him.
Yeddyurappa had filed a petition in the HC, seeking dismissal of the permission granted to prosecute him by Bhardwaj on January 11,2011. The then governor had granted permission to advocates, Sirajin Basha and K N Balaraj, to prosecute Yeddyurappa relating to alleged notification scandals during the term of Yeddyurappa as chief minister, numbering 15.
The HC division bench comprising acting chief justice, S K Mukherjee, and Justice Vineet Saran, which partly upheld the petition, held the permission granted by the then governor as illegal, as the permission did not conform to the rules relating to granting of such permissions.
The HC has returned the matter to the governor to enable him to review the matter in the light of points discussed in the current verdict. The HC observed that the governor had not given specific reasons for permitting the petitioners to prosecute Yeddyurappa, and that it was not clear why such a permission was given at a time when a commission headed by Justice P Padmaraj had been formed in tune with the cabinet decision dated December 22, 2010, to look into illegal denotificaions.
The division bench observed that the governor, who is entitled to have a different view than that of the cabinet ministers, has to specify why he differs from their views. In the permission granted for prosecution, the governor had not made a mention of the letter written by Yeddyurappa to him requesting him not to grant permission to prosecute him. It came to the conclusion that the governor failed to exercise his discretion in justifiable manner.
With this, Yeddyurppa, whose future prospects were clouded because of this case, has got partial relief. It may be recalled that he had spent 24 days inside jail during 2011 relating to this alleged scam. Now it is up to the petitioners to question this judgment in the Supreme Court. Till the governor takes a final decision in the issue, proceedings pending in Lokayukta court will remain stalled.