Aug 17,2024: Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot on Saturday gave sanction to three private complainants to file court cases seeking a probe against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over a 2021 allotment of 14 housing sites in Mysuru to his wife Parvathi B M in exchange for 3.16 acres of land acquired from her by the authorities.
“I hereby accord sanction against Chief Minister Sri Siddaramaiah under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 for the commission of the alleged offences as mentioned in the petitions,” Gehlot said in a communique dated August 16 that was released on Saturday.
“It is very necessary that a neutral, objective and non-partisan investigation should be conducted. I am prima facie satisfied that the allegations and the supporting materials to disclose commission of offences,” Gehlot added.
The Karnataka government is expected to challenge the governor’s sanction. “He (the governor) has no authority, he has no jurisdiction, it is totally unconstitutional,” Siddaramaiah said on Saturday, adding that he would “fight it out legally in the court of law”.
The three complainants, anti-corruption activists T J Abraham, Snehamayi Krishna and Pradeep Kumar, had approached the governor last month for sanction to file private court complaints against Siddaramaiah, seeking an investigation into the land allotments made by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to Parvathi.
The activists have alleged corruption in the acquisition of 3.16 acres of land in Mysuru’s Kesare village in 2004 by Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law B M Mallikarjun – he gifted the land to Parvathi in 2010 – and the subsequent exchange of the land in 2021 for 14 housing sites by MUDA under a 50:50 scheme where land equivalent to half the acquired land is allotted in a developed area.
Incidentally, the Siddaramaiah government stopped the 50:50 MUDA scheme in October 2023 after complaints of it being misused cropped up during the BJP tenure in 2020. All land exchanges by MUDA under this scheme were halted pending an inquiry after the allegations of corruption in the land allotment to Parvathi.
In anticipation of the governor granting sanction, the Congress had rallied around Siddaramaiah and the state cabinet passed a resolution on August 1 advising the governor against doing so. The Congress cabinet is now scheduled to hold a special meeting on Saturday evening.
In the MUDA ‘scam’, the Karnataka government has constituted two separate probes by a one-man judicial commission headed by former Karnataka High Court judge P N Desai and a second by an IAS officer Venkatachalapathy.
There are, however, Karnataka High Court orders that have ruled that a governor’s sanction is not required to file a private complaint against a public servant in a Prevention of Corruption case.
The Karnataka governor, while granting sanction for filing complaints in a court against Siddaramaiah, has, however, stated that the ordering of two separate probes by the Congress government into the alleged MUDA scam raises suspicion of wrongdoing.
“Further, the constituting of a committee under an IAS officer and immediately constituting one more committee under a retired judge of the high court and the government’s own acceptance that there is a potential big ticket scam in the allotment of sites by MUDA does not inspire much confidence,” the governor stated in his sanction order.
“It is a well settled legal principle that the person against whom allegations are made, should not be empowered to decide the course of action,” the governor said.
