Denotification case returns to haunt CM as governor seeks legal opinion

BENGALURU: Governor Vajubhai R Vala has reportedly started the process of seeking legal opinion over sanctioning of permission sought by lawyers representing BJP to prosecute chief minister Siddaramaiah for his alleged role in denotifying two land parcels in Bengaluru North taluk in 2016 in violation of a Supreme Court order.
The governor has been taking experts’ opinion to come to a conclusion, as an earlier request by the lawyers to sanction the prosecution was kept in abeyance.The BJP lawyers placed a second request before Vala last week.
On Monday morning, speculation was rife that Union minister Prakash Javadekar held a closed-door meeting with Vala at Raj Bhavan. Congress leaders also charged the BJP leadership with attempting to ‘fix’ Siddaramaiah in the denotification case ahead of the 2018 assembly polls.
KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and MLC V S Ugrappa said: “The BJP is looking at misusing the Raj Bhavan. The governor should not give in to the party’s pressure. There is no concrete evidence to prove that the CM has done anything wrong.”
However, Javadekar denied meeting Vala. “The Congress has gone berserk and is making bizarre claims. When Vala was not in town, how could I have met him? While he left the state on Friday, I arrived here on Sunday. If the Congress wants to make any allegations, let them at least verify the facts. I agree it is election season and allegations will be made, but unlike the BJP, the Congress has stooped down to such low levels of accusations.”
The case: Story so far
The BJP had registered a complaint against Siddaramaiah with the Lokayukta and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) after 6 acres and 26 guntas of land worth around Rs 300 crore was denotified in June 2016, in violation of SC orders. The case pertains to BDA’s acquisition of the two parcels in Survey No. 20 and 21 of Bhoopasandra in Kasaba hobli.
According to the complaint, a final notification for the land acquisition was issued in December 1982 to create Raj Mahal Vilas 2nd Stage Extension. Subsequently, 22 people were allotted sites and given possession letters.
In 1992, land was denotified under the Land Acquisition Act and allottees challenged this in the high court, which set aside the denotification. One of the original land owners, Syed Bashid, took the matter to the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court’s decision to scrap the denotification.
In 2013, Congress MLA Vasanth Bangera wrote to the CM, requesting him to denotify the land again. Meanwhile, one of the land owners, K V Jayalakshamma, approached the high court seeking denotification. The latter quashed the notification and ordered restoration of land to the original owners. Jayalakshamma had given the General Power of Attorney to Keerthi Raj Shetty, said to be a close associate of Siddaramaiah.