Karnataka govt to revisit refusal of sanction in lodging graft FIR against BSY, others, SC told

The Karnataka government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it is going to revisit the issue of refusal of sanction sought to file an FIR against former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in a corruption case with regard to the awarding of a BDA contract for building a housing complex.

Additional Advocate General of Karnataka Aman Panwar submitted before a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the state government would revisit the matter as charges are serious.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Yeddyurappa, submitted that this does not only seem to be a case of "regime revenge" but of "revenge transformation".

The bench said it would consider the matter after three weeks to let the state government formalise its decision.

Luthra, for his part, sought a short adjournment as he was already engaged in a partly heard matter related to quashing of the proceedings against former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu before another bench.

He also submitted the matter over there also related to applicability of Section 17A which stated prior approval is needed for an enquiry, inquiry or investigation against a serving or retired government servant.

A counsel for complainant activist T J Abraham submitted the court should give a specific date of hearing as the matter has long remained as stayed.

On September 23, 2022, the court had ordered a stay on the investigation in an FIR lodged by Lokayukta police against Yeddyurappa in the corruption case.

Yeddyurappa questioned the validity of the Karnataka High Court, which ignored the fact that it was mandatory to obtain prior sanction before issuing an order for lodging the FIR.

Complainant Abraham had claimed that the necessity of prior sanction has been dispensed with after the latest amendment in law in cases arising out of complaint filed under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, where the trial judge has gone through the materials before ordering lodging of the FIR.

In this instance, the complainant had sought sanction from the Governor which was declined.

Besides Yeddyurappa, his son B Y Vijayendra, son-in-law Sanjay Shree, and grandson Shashidhar Maradi and others were also named as accused by the complainant.

The Karnataka High Court had, in an order on September 7, 2022 held that the rejection of sanction would not come in the way of proceedings against Yeddyurappa.

The case related to allegation of bribes to the tune of Rs 12 crore to award a BDA contract for a construction firm to build a housing complex for the government during his tenure as CM in 2019-21.

The FIR was lodged against ths former Karnataka CM, his family members and others on September 16, 2022.