Corruption case: SC refers to larger bench issues over ex-CM B S Yediyurappa plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday referred to a larger bench the legal issues stemming from a plea of BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, including the question whether a prior sanction to prosecute is needed under the Prevention of Corruption Act after a magisterial court order of inquiry.

The bench was in the process of dictating its judgement on Yediyurappa's plea against an order of the Karnataka High Court reviving a corruption case against him when it found that a matter with similar legal issues was referred to a larger bench.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, therefore, refrained from passing the judgement on the ground of judicial propriety.

"We had reserved the matter for judgment while framing the aforesaid questions for consideration (on April 4). However, while preparing the judgment, on the issue relating to the applicability of Aiyappa's decision we came across an order of this court dated April 16, 2024 passed by a coordinate bench of this court in SLP (Crl)," it noted.

The top court went on, "As for maintaining judicial discipline a coordinate bench of this court has refrained from proceeding further in deciding the underlying issue, which is under reference to a larger bench, we deem it appropriate to tag these petitions with the referred matter."

The bench then directed its registry to place the matters before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders.

The verdict was reserved on April 4.

The high court, on January 5, 2021, allowed a plea of Bengaluru-based A Alam Pasha and revived his complaint against Yediyurappa, former Industries Minister Murugesh R Nirani and Shivaswamy KS, former managing director of Karnataka Udyog Mitra.

Pasha alleged charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against Yediyurappa, Nirani and Shivaswamy KS.

The high court ruled the absence of a prior sanction leading to the quashing of an earlier complaint did not bar the filing of a fresh complaint once the accused demitted office but did not allow prosecution of V P Baligar, a retired IAS officer and former principal secretary of state government in the case. The top court framed questions, including whether after a judicial magistrate orders a probe under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), would a prior sanction of the appropriate authorities still be required under Section 17A of the PC Act?

Section 156 (3) of CrPC permits a judicial magistrate to order a police probe into a complaint and it may include order for a preliminary inquiry or registration of an FIR.