SC issues notice to Karnataka Minister DK Shivakumar in Land Grabbing case

The Supreme Court last week issued notice in an appeal filed against a judgment of the Karnataka High Court, which had quashed a case against former state Energy Minister DK Shivakumar in a land grabbing case..A Bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan issued notice to DK Shivakumar, BS Yeddyurappa and the State of Karnataka, among others..Advocate Prashant Bhushan, along with advocate K Parmeshwar appeared for the appellants. Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and CU Singh appeared for the respondents..Notice has been issued nearly two years after the appeal was filed..The land in question, around 4.20 acres, was notified land which had been acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act, 1991 prohibits transfer of land acquired by the government..Despite that, Shivakumar had acquired the land from one BK Srinivasan. Shivakumar was the Urban Development Minister during that period..He had got the kathas, pahanies and mutation carried out in December 2003, while he was serving as the Urban Development Minister. It has been alleged that no process of inviting objections or mandatory waiting period of 30 days was followed in getting the entries mutated. Investigation by the police revealed that at time of mutation, the entries were in the name of BDA. Even before the de-notification, the entries were mutated in the name of the accused without notice to the BDA..Shivakumar had then entered into a Joint Development Agreement with Prudential Housing and Infrastructure Development Ltd, and sought change of land use from industrial to residential..He is then alleged to have written three letters in his own name seeking de-notification of land while concealing that he is the owner of the land. He is alleged to have cited previous owner, Srinivasan – who had by then passed away – as the owner of the land..The land was eventually de-notified by the Yeddyurappa government..Trial was underway against Shivakumar under the Prevention of Corruption Act, when the High Court intervened and quashed the case, holding that no criminal case is made out..The Karnataka government had not appealed against said decision, leaving it to the private complainant Kabbale Gowda to appeal against the judgment..When the matter was taken up last week, the Supreme Court noted that,.“though the matter is being taken up for consideration from time to time. No formal notice has been issued in these matters so far.”.It, therefore issued notice and posted the case for hearing after six weeks..Read the order below..Image taken from here.