Supreme Court notice to D K Shivakumar on a plea against withdrawal of sanction to CBI probe into illegal assets

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and the state government on a plea questioning withdrawal of consent to the CBI to investigate a disproportionate assets case against him.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan sought response from the state government and the senior Congress leader on a petition filed by Karnataka BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal.

The petitioner challenged the Karnataka High Court's order of August 29, 2024, rejecting his plea.

At the outset, the bench asked how Article 131 of the Constitution for filing appeal before the Supreme Court would lie here as it was something between the State and the State (CBI). 

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Shivakumar, defended the High Court's judgment that it was right, since all the investigation was between Centre (CBI) and the State. He also contended that the aggrieved person here should be CBI, the consent from whom was withdrawn. 

"You may be right. The High Court could have said that CBI is aggrieved party and not the other one," the bench said.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Patil, said the High Court's judgment did not contain even a whisper about his locus.

The court, however, decided to examine the matter, allowing the state government and Shivakumar to raise preliminary objections.

On August 29, the Karnataka High Court dismissed petitions filed by Yatnal and the CBI challenging the Congress government’s decision to withdraw consent for investigating a corruption case against Shivakumar. 

The court had termed the petitions as “non-maintainable”.

The High Court also dismissed the CBI’s challenge to the state’s November 28, 2023, decision to withdraw consent for probing Shivakumar’s alleged illegal assets.