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Karnataka HC scraps Siddaramaiah govt order to withdraw 43 criminal cases, says it’s illegal
The Karnataka high court ruled that the government order to withdraw the prosecution in 43 cases shall be treated as non-existent from inception
BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court on Thursday set aside the state government’s order that directed prosecutors to withdraw 43 criminal cases, including one registered for the attack on a police station by a large group of people during the 2022 Hubballi riots.
A bench of chief justice NV Anjaria and justice KV Aravind said the state government’s order was “illegal” and “violated Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code” (CrPC) that empowers the public prosecutor to withdraw prosecution with the court’s consent.
“GO (government order) is set aside. It is declared that the order shall stand non est from inception. Consequences in law will follow,” the high court said, allowing a public interest litigation filed by Girish Bharadwaj, a lawyer.
The petition challenged the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government’s October 15, 2024, order that required prosecutors to withdraw 43 cases registered between 2008 and 2023.
The detailed order is yet to be released. During the hearings previously, the high court had indicated that the petition appeared to be prima facie justified since the state government had exceeded its authority to pass the government order when the department of prosecution and law have opined that the cases were not fit for withdrawal of prosecution.
Advocate Venkatesh Dalwai, appearing for the petition, had argued before the division bench that the state government did not have a role in directing prosecutors to withdraw prosecution under Section 321 of CrPC . Dalwai said only the public prosecutor could decide whether a case should be withdrawn and that too, only with the court’s consent.
“The prosecutor is not a post office for the executive,” Dalwai had argued.
The petitioner alleged that the state government cherry-picked the cases to favour politically connected individuals.
Some of these cases were registered against Kannada activists, farmer leaders, as well as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders such as former minister MC Sudhakar and senior leader CT Ravi.
But the most controversial was the 2022 Hubballi riot case, in which a mob vandalised a police station on April 12, 2022, after a protest over a controversial social media post that showed a saffron flag hoisted atop a mosque. 139 people, including All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Mohammed Arif were arrayed as accused in the case.
At the time, senior BJP leader and Union minister Pralhad Joshi, who represents the Hubballi-Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency, described the Congress government’s decision to withdraw the Hubballi riots case as “height of appeasement”.
“Unfortunately, the Congress party here in Karnataka has reached the height of appeasement. They have withdrawn the case under the UAPA, when the matter is before the NIA court. In normal course as far as I know, the state cannot withdraw it but still they have withdrawn it. This is the height of appeasement,” Joshi said.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah had then defended the cabinet decision to withdraw the cases, and argued that the cabinet had the powers. “There is a cabinet subcommittee under home minister’s leadership, as per their discretion, they have taken the decision and the cabinet has approved it,” he said on 11 October.
The state government has not reacted to the court verdict yet.
