Justice Surya Kant's bench to hear CBI, BJP MLA pleas against Karnataka deputy CM: SC

New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday said a bench led by Justice Surya Kant would hear pleas challenging Karnataka's decision to withdraw consent to investigate a disproportionate assets case against Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran noted that the pleas were earlier dealt by another bench headed by Justice Surya Kant.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Congress leader, said the CJI earlier said that political scores should be settled elsewhere and not in courts.

The CJI said that it would be in the best interest of justice, if the pleas are heard by another bench and directed that they be listed before Justice Surya Kant-led bench.

In October last year, the CBI moved the top court against the state government's decision to withdraw its consent to the probe agency for investigating the DA case against Shivakumar.

Notices were issued on the plea of the probe agency.

BJP leader Basanagouda R Patil Yatnal also moved the top court on the issue.

The apex court sought responses from Shivakumar and the state government.

On September 17, last year, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan had issued notices to Shivakumar and the state government on the plea filed by Patil.

The current Karnataka cabinet headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on November 23, 2023, held the previous BJP government's 2019 move to give consent to the CBI to investigate the DA case against Shivakumar was not in accordance with law and decided to withdraw the sanction as a result.

The Karnataka High Court held as "non-maintainable" a petition filed by the CBI and a BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal challenging the Congress government's decision to withdraw the consent.

On August 29, last year, the high court had dismissed the plea, which also challenged the state government's December 26, 2023 order referring the Rs 74.93 crore DA case to the Lokayukta for investigation.

The CBI had alleged that Shivakumar amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018. He was a minister in the previous Congress government during this period.

The CBI registered a DA case against Shivakumar on October 3, 2020, based on the consent given by the BJP government on September 25, 2019, following a reference by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate corruption charges emerging from an income tax investigation.

The then BJP government subsequently granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Shivakumar.

The politician was arrested by the ED in September 2019 on the basis of alleged money-laundering charges stemming from an Income-Tax department investigation against him between 2017 and 2019. He was released on bail in the ED case in October, 2019.

The top court quashed the money laundering case against Shivakumar saying it must be linked to the scheduled offence. PTI SJK SJK AMK AMK