Thanks to the resolute of the Karnataka High Court that has declared the petition of the incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah as inadmissible He had petitioned the court to block an aspect of the Governor’s sanction to prosecute him in the alleged Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land scam. The case is related to the allotment of the prime land to Siddaramaiah’s wife B.M. Parvathi, in which resulted in a loss of ₹ 45 crore to the state.
On 16-08—2024 the Governor Thawarchand Gehlot gave sanction under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act based on allegations that Parvathi was provided compensating land in the prime land of mysore in lieu of some less valuable land. Siddaramaiah was always denying any misconduct on his part.
In the present matter the Hon’ble Justice M. Nagaprasanna, sitting in the case observed that there has been exercise of independent judgment on the part of the Governor and as such no stay shall be granted. The counsel for Siddaramaiah, Abhishek Singhvi, contended that the Governor of the state had acted in violation of the state Cabinet’s approval, which the court did not accept because the Governor’s action was legal.
The allegations have been made since 2014-15 when Parvathi demanded compensation for the land she claimed MUDA was occupying. A 50:A 50 lakh compensation scheme was announced and to begin with, in 2022, Parvathi received 14 superior plots at Vijayanagar, Mysuru. Nevertheless, the state government decided to do away with the compensation scheme in October, 2023.
For the general population that is interested in the land scam partly because of the senior political dignitary involved, Siddaramaiah’s plea has been rejected by High Court and this paves way for official probe into the case.
