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A plea to restore a criminal complaint (Pasha v. Yediyurappa & Ors.) registered against Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Murugesh Nirani, former State Industries Minister has been allowed by the Karnataka High Court. The plea was heard by the Single Judge Bench of Justice John Michael Cunha. Alam Pasha had complained that the respondents had failed to fulfill their commitment to grant 26 acres of land to a private investor in 2011. The complaint had previously been dismissed by the Sessions Court in 2016.
The petitioner had argued in the plea that because the respondents had demitted their office, there was no need for a sanction to hold a trial against them. The legal counsel for the respondent, Senior Advocate CV Nagesh, argued that the complaint concerned cannot be maintained as the order passed by the High Court in 2013 acts as a bar for fresh complaints without a new sanction. The Court stated in its opinion that it agreed with the petitioner and that the reason behind dismissing the complaint earlier, the lack of sanction, does not act as a bar to maintain the complaint concerned.
Justice Cunha further elaborated that the complaint is also not affected by the prohibition laid down in Article 20(2) of The Constitution of India and Section 300 of The Code of Criminal Procedure. He further stated that this is because the respondents were not being tried for the complaint registered against them earlier in PCR. No. 25/2012. The Court reached this conclusion by relying on a judgment passed by the Supreme Court in Station House Officer, CBI/ACB/Bangalore v. BA Srinivasan.
The Court ruled that the Special Judge was wrong in setting aside the complaint in 2016 and restored the complaint against Yediyurappa and two others. It has ordered the trial court to proceed with the trial for the complaint concerned. It also confirmed its rejection of a complaint against one of the respondents, Respondent No. 3, who was a public servant.
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