Supreme Court reserves verdict on former Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa’s plea against revival of corruption case

Supreme Court reserves verdict on B.S. Yediyurappa's plea against revived corruption case, raising key legal questions.

The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a plea of senior BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa against an order reviving a corruption case against him.

The Karnataka High Court, on January 5, 2021, allowed a plea of complainant A. Alam Pasha, who hails from Bengaluru, and revived his complaint.

Pasha alleged corruption and criminal conspiracy against Mr. Yediyurappa and former Industries minister Murugesh R. Nirani and Shivaswamy K.S., former managing director of Karnataka Udyog Mitra.

The HC ruled that the absence of prior sanction for prosecution — leading to the quashing of an earlier complaint — did not bar the filing of a fresh complaint once the accused had demitted office.

It, however, did not allow criminal prosecution of V.P. Baligar, a retired IAS officer and former principal secretary of the State government, in the corruption case.

On April 4, a bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra concluded the hearings and framed several key legal questions for its adjudication, including whether after a judicial magistrate has ordered probe under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), would a prior sanction of the appropriate government authorities be still required under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

Section 156 (3) of the CrPC permits a judicial magistrate to order a police investigation into a complaint and it may include order for a preliminary inquiry or registration of an FIR.