Law Min Sadananda Gowda, Karnataka CM exonerated in Bar Council case

The Karnataka Lokayukta has dismissed cases against Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and seven other politicians from the state, reports Bangalore Mirror..The others involved in the case include Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Tourism Minister RV Deshpande, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister HK Patil, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister TB Jayachandra, former Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, former minister S Suresh Kumar and legislator VS Ugrappa..The nine politicians, who are all enrolled advocates, were facing charges of criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act in a private complaint filed by Anti-Corruption Council of India Trust..The complainant accused them of drawing a salary without surrendering their enrolment licence to the Karnataka State Bar Council. Section VII of Chapter II of the Bar Council of India Rules lays down certain restrictions on practising advocates as regards taking up other employments..Rule 49 states:.“An advocate shall not be a full-time salaried employee of any person, government, firm, corporation or concern, so long as he continues to practise, and shall, on taking up any such employment, intimate the fact to the Bar Council on whose roll his name appears and shall thereupon cease to practise as an advocate so long as he continues in such employment.”.Lokayukta special court judge VG Bopaiah found no merit in the complaint. He also ruled that since there was no sanction against the politicians, he could not take cognizance of the matter. The complainants relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Parkash Singh Badal v. State of Punjab, in which it was held,.“It is, therefore, manifestly clear that if any information disclosing a cognizable offence is laid before an officer in charge of a police station satisfying the requirements of Section 154(1) of the Code, the said police officer has no other option except to enter the substance thereof in the prescribed form, that is to say, to register a case on the basis of such information.”.However, Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure clearly states that complaints against public servants cannot be taken cognizance of without prior sanction. The provision states,.“When any person who is or was a Judge or Magistrate or a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the Government is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty, no Court shall take cognizance of such offence except with the previous sanction.(b) in the case of a person who is employed or, as the case may be, was at the time of commission of the alleged offence employed, in connection with the affairs of a State, of the State Government.”.This is the second case in as many months the Law Minister has been given the clean chit in. In November last year, the Supreme Court had set aside a Karnataka High Court judgment that had held Gowda guilty of misusing government land..Image taken from here.