From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 30: In what may turn out to be setback for former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in his quest for honourable rehabilitation in the BJP over the various scams damaging his reputation, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the State Government to approach the Karnataka High Court for lifting the stay on the Lingyat strongman on continuing the investigations into the three alleged land-scams.
A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice J Chelameswar and Justice A M Sapre, in its order, directed the counsel for Karnataka Government to move the High Court for vacating the stay on the alleged land denotifications by the BJP leader.
"We will simply adjourn it today and see what happens there," the apex court bench said. The High Court is likely to hear the cases on December 1.
The cases involved denotification of land acquired by Bangalore Development Authority for formation of Banashankari V stage, BTM IV stage and for extending Mahalakshmi Layout.
The former BJP chief minister came under the scanner after the Lokayukta registered three FIRs against him and some others in June 2015 for charges of corruption and various offences under Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act.
In three separate special leave petitions before the apex court, the State Government contended that the High Court ought not to have stayed the investigation into the complaints made before Lokayukta on the basis of the Comptroller and Auditor General report, highlighting "misuse of authority with a corrupt motive thereby causing heavy loss to the state exchequer".
Karnataka sought a direction for setting aside of the September 15 order of the High Court, saying it had "virtually stalled the entire investigation" while acting on a plea by Yeddyurappa.
Yeddyurappa, it may be recalled, had recently said at a meeting that he should no longer be termed as 'tainted' after the High Court's decision holding that the former State Governor H R Bharadwaj’s decision on permitting investigation without verifying the contention of the former was wrong.
The BJP leader, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Shimoga, had been denied a Cabinet berth due to the corruption cases pending against him. The BJP national president Amit Shah had appointed Yeddyurappa as the national vice president.
However, it is common knowledge that the BJP leader is keen on becoming appointed as the next State President of the party to get the organisation ready for the ensuing assembly polls in 2019 and become the chief minister again, if the party emerged victorious.