Yedyurappa case: SC asks petitioner to prove his bonafide

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court today asked apetitioner to prove his bonafide for filing a plea challenginga Karnataka High Court order quashing the order sanctioningprosecution of ex-Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in connectionwith denotification of land acquired for the BangaloreDevelopment Authority (BDA). A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre askedadvocate Sirajin Basha to prove his bonafide in filing theplea as a private party. Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam appearing for thepetitioner said it was a genuine private party complaint andhe will prove his bonafide in filing the case. He said that private party complaint was maintainable andthe Karnataka High Court has wrongly quashed the order of thengovernor H R Bhardwaj according sanction to prosecuteYeddyurappa. He further said the then Governor’s order was notdiscussed by the High Court which had referred the matter tothe new Governor for reconsideration. To this, the bench said that one governor has accordedthe sanction while the other governor has cancelled thesanction relying on the same materials. "There are two conflicting opinions on the same materialsby two constitutional authorities," the bench said and askedthe petitioner why he had not approached the trial court. Subramaniam said he did not moved the trial court as hehad challenged the Karnataka High Court order itself whichmade the successor Governor to give opinion on the sanction toprosecute Yedyurappa. In November last, the High Court had quashed the January21, 2011 order issued by then Governor Bhardwaj and said therewas no explanation why he had accorded sanction in favour ofprosecution. The court had said as the complaint was a private one,"great caution and proper application of mind was necessary,particularly (on) the uneasy relationship between then chiefminister and governor. Earlier, this year High Court had quashed 15 FIRs filedagainst the senior BJP leader for alleged illegaldenotification of lands based on a CAG report. The FIRs were registered following a complaint filed byone Jayakumar Hiremath based on CAG report in 2012 ondenotification of land by government and allotment of sites byBangalore Development Authority. PTI MNL SJK RKSARC