SC to hear plea to reopen 9-yr-old case against BS Yediyurappa

New Delhi: The day B.S.Yeddyurappa was sworn in as Karnataka chief minister, a nine year old case involving the denotification of land in Bangalore in 2010 allegedly to benefit the senior Congress leader D.K. Shivkumar has come to haunt him.

The bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice M.R.Shah said that they would examine the prayer by the NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya seeking reopening of the case that was closed earlier this year. However, the court said that it would first ascertain whether a disposed of criminal matter could be restored at the instance of third party which has nothing to do with the case.

The plea by lawyer Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO  Samaj Parivartan Samudaya seeking the recall of the order by which matter wads closed was opposed by the by the senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Yeddyurappa and Shiv Kumar respectively. Both the senior lawyers contended that a criminal matter could not be reopened at the instance of a third party.

The bench said that it would look into the objections flagged by the two senior counsel. The NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya has sought the recall of the February 21, 2019 order under which petition was dismissed after complainant had sought the permission to withdraw his appeal against the high court order quashing the proceedings against Yeddyurappa and others.

Yeddyurapopa – then Chief Minister of Karnataka - had denotified 4.20 acres of land in 2010 allegedly benefiting Shiv Kumar.

The land that was acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority was allegedly denotified in violation of the Karnataka Restriction of Transfer of Land Act, 1991.