MUDA 'scam' | ‘Application of mind’ applies to judiciary also: CM Siddaramaiah’s legal advisor after Karnataka HC okays probe

Siddaramaiah will decide on the next legal move in a day or two after consulting senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ponnanna, Siddaramaiah’s legal advisor, said.

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will challenge the Karnataka High Court’s order against him on the basis of fallacies in the judgement delivered by Justice M Nagaprasanna.

“There are certainly loopholes in the High Court order. Once we move an appeal, I’m confident that the court itself will set right the anomalies,” Siddaramaiah’s legal advisor A S Ponnanna, the Virajpet Congress MLA, said.

Siddaramaiah will decide on the next legal move in a day or two after consulting senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Ponnanna said.

In his order Tuesday, Justice Nagaprasanna stated that prima facie there was “stretching of the arms of undue influence and portrays abuse of power of the seat of the chief minister or any other post held by the petitioner (Siddaramaiah)”.

But Ponnanna said no one, including the High Court order, showed what Siddaramaiah’s role was in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment scam.

“Our argument was that there was no application of mind by the Governor. This principle of 'application of mind' applies to the judiciary also. Orders should be based on what's on record,” Ponnanna said. He also pointed out that under Article 226, High Courts do not have jurisdiction to investigate based on factual aspects.

“Based on all these points, we should move an appeal,” Ponnanna, a former additional advocate general, said.

Ponnanna said orders given by a single bench of the High Court are not final. “Only a Supreme Court order becomes the law of the land. So, what the High Court has said isn’t set in stone. We can’t accept what the judge has stated,” he said.

Ponnanna also had a problem with the High Court order noting that the total market value of 14 plots given to Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi was close to Rs 56 crore against the guidance value of Rs 8.24 lakh. “Who should decide the value of the land? If I say that the value of Vidhana Soudha is Rs 10, will that be considered?” he said.

The lawmaker pointed out that details of 125 cases involving people who lost land in the Kesare village were given plots in the Vijayanagar Layout. “It’s not that Parvathi alone got the plots,” he said, adding that no act of one court should prejudice another.