The Supreme Court on Monday directed that a bench led by Justice Surya Kant will hear the petitions challenging the Karnataka government’s decision to withdraw consent for a CBI probe into a disproportionate assets (DA) case against Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran observed that the matter had previously been considered by a bench headed by Justice Surya Kant. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Shivakumar, reminded the court that the CJI had earlier remarked that political rivalries should not be fought in courts.
Chief Justice Gavai said it would be in the “best interest of justice” if the matter is heard by the same bench and ordered the registry to list the pleas before Justice Surya Kant’s bench.
The CBI registered a DA case against Shivakumar in October 2020, based on the consent granted by the then BJP government in September 2019. The sanction followed a reference from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which was probing money-laundering allegations stemming from Income-Tax investigations between 2017 and 2019.
The CBI alleged that Shivakumar amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2013 and 2018, when he served as a minister in the Congress government.
In September 2019, Shivakumar was arrested by the ED in connection with the money-laundering case and later released on bail in October that year. The Supreme Court eventually quashed the ED case, ruling that money-laundering charges must be linked to a scheduled offence.
On November 23, 2023, the Congress-led cabinet headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah withdrew the previous BJP government’s consent to the CBI probe, terming the 2019 decision as legally unsustainable. The case was instead referred to the state Lokayukta for investigation.
The Karnataka High Court dismissed petitions filed by the CBI and BJP leader Basanagouda R Patil Yatnal challenging the withdrawal, holding them “non-maintainable.”
The CBI and Yatnal then approached the Supreme Court. On September 17 last year, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notices to Shivakumar and the state government. The current proceedings stem from those petitions.
With today’s order, the case will once again return to Justice Surya Kant’s bench for further hearing, where both the CBI and the state government will have to present their responses.
