The Karnataka High Court on Thursday rejected petitions against the state government’s decision barring the Central Bureau of Investigation from looking into corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Live Law reported.
The previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka had granted consent for the investigation on September 25, 2019. However, after the Congress came to power last year, the state government decided to withdraw consent on November 28.
Petitions against the decision were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal.
A division bench consisting of Justice K Somashekhar and Justice Umesh M Adiga on Thursday ruled that the petitions were not maintainable. It said that as the dispute was “between the CBI representing the Union Government and the State government”, it needed to be addressed by the Supreme Court.
The High Court allowed the CBI and Yatnal to approach the Supreme Court.
Prasanna Kumar, the counsel for the central agency, argued that once the state government grants consent for an investigation, it cannot withdraw it with retrospective effect. On the other hand, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Karnataka government, contended that the question before the court was not the withdrawal of consent but the “illegality of consent”, Live Law reported.
After the previous BJP government allowed the CBI to investigate the matter, the central agency had booked Shivakumar in 2020 for allegedly possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 74.93 crore. His assets had increased disproportionately between 2013 and 2018, the agency alleged.
The Congress government, while withdrawing consent to the CBI, noted that the case was referred to the agency in 2019 even before the first information report was filed in 2020.
On Thursday, commenting on the High Court verdict, Shivakumar said that it was a “victory for the people and the government”, ANI reported.
“I had great faith in the judiciary and I feel vindicated today,” the deputy chief minister said. “I would like to thank the government and my legal counsels for all the support.’“