The Supreme Court on Monday postponed the hearing of a plea concerning the withdrawal of consent for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a probe into a disproportionate assets case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. The hearing has been adjourned for four weeks.
The decision to defer the case came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench, comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, that the CBI has also filed an appeal against a Karnataka High Court order. The High Court had earlier deemed non-maintainable a plea by the CBI challenging the Karnataka Congress government’s decision to withdraw consent for the investigation.
The case initially arose from an appeal filed by BJP MLA Basangouda R Patil (Yatnal), who challenged the High Court’s August 29 decision. The High Court had rejected Yatnal’s plea against the state government’s order dated November 23, 2023, which referred the Rs 74.93 crore disproportionate assets case to the Lokayukta for investigation.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, representing Deputy CM Shivakumar, requested additional time to file a response, leading to the adjournment of the matter. On September 17, the apex court had issued notices to Shivakumar and the Karnataka government regarding the MLA’s plea.
The controversy stems from allegations that Shivakumar accumulated assets disproportionate to his known sources of income during his tenure as a minister in the erstwhile Congress government between 2013 and 2018. Following these allegations, the then BJP-led state government authorized the CBI to prosecute Shivakumar.
However, the current government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah argued that the previous BJP government’s decision to allow the CBI to investigate was illegal and subsequently withdrew consent for the probe.
