Yedyurappa case: SC asks petitioner to prove his bonafide

The Supreme Court today asked a petitioner to prove his bonafide for filing a plea challenging a Karnataka High Court order quashing the order sanctioning prosecution of ex-Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in connection with denotification of land acquired for the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).
A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre asked advocate Sirajin Basha to prove his bonafide in filing the plea as a private party.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam appearing for the petitioner said it was a genuine private party complaint and he will prove his bonafide in filing the case.
He said that private party complaint was maintainable and the Karnataka High Court has wrongly quashed the order of then governor H R Bhardwaj according sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa.

He further said the then Governor's order was not discussed by the High Court which had referred the matter to the new Governor for reconsideration.
To this, the bench said that one governor has accorded the sanction while the other governor has cancelled the sanction relying on the same materials.

"There are two conflicting opinions on the same materials by two constitutional authorities," the bench said and asked the petitioner why he had not approached the trial court.
Subramaniam said he did not moved the trial court as he had challenged the Karnataka High Court order itself which made the successor Governor to give opinion on the sanction to prosecute Yedyurappa.

In November last, the High Court had quashed the January 21, 2011 order issued by then Governor Bhardwaj and said there was no explanation why he had accorded sanction in favour of prosecution.
The court had said as the complaint was a private one, "great caution and proper application of mind was necessary, particularly (on) the uneasy relationship between then chief minister and governor.
Earlier, this year High Court had quashed 15 FIRs filed against the senior BJP leader for alleged illegal denotification of lands based on a CAG report.
The FIRs were registered following a complaint filed by one Jayakumar Hiremath based on CAG report in 2012 on denotification of land by government and allotment of sites by Bangalore Development Authority.