DA case against D K Shivakumar: SC refuses to interfere with interim stay on consent to CBI probe

The Supreme Court said that it was inclined to interfere with the Karnataka High Court's order as it was interim in nature and that the petitioner - CBI - has already filed an application for vacation of the stay before the High Court.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court has refused to interfere with the interim stay granted by the Karnataka High Court on the state’s consent to the CBI to probe the disproportionate assets case against Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

A bench comprising justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said: “The impugned order being interim in nature, we are not inclined to interfere with the same, more, particularly when the petitioner - CBI has already filed an application for vacation of the stay granted in the impugned order passed by the High Court, before the High Court”.

The apex court disposed of the special leave petition filed by the CBI against the Karnataka High Court's interim order of June 12, 2023. The bench said: “However, it is requested that the high court may hear and dispose of the application filed by the CBI seeking vacation of stay and the appeal pending before it as expeditiously as possible and preferably within two weeks. The special leave petition stands disposed of accordingly”.

Shivakumar had filed a plea against the September 25, 2019 order of consent issued by the then B S Yediyurappa government. A single-judge bench of the high court in April 2023, dismissed his plea. Shivakumar, in the appeal, contended that a co-ordinate bench’s order dismissing the petition filed by one Shashikumar Shivanna, a HAL employee, cannot have any bearing upon him.

The CBI had claimed that Shivakumar amassed Rs 74.93 crore of wealth, disproportionate to known sources of income, from April 1, 2013, to April 30, 2018, when he was the energy minister in the Congress-led Karnataka government.

The division bench of the high court, in its June 12, 2023 order, noted Shivakumar's counsel's contention that if the appellant is not protected by an interim order, grave and irreparable injury will be caused to him and on the other hand, no prejudice would be caused to the respondents.

The bench division bench had said that in its opinion, Shivakumar has made out a case for a grant of ad interim stay. “Accordingly, there shall be an interim stay of the Government Order……..dated September 25, 2019, issued by respondent No.2 till the next date of hearing," said the bench.

The CBI filed FIR against Shivakumar in October 2020 on charges of corruption, based on the findings of the income-tax department’s searches carried out in August 2017 at around 70 premises linked to him.

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