Supreme Court asks Reddy to withdraw plea from High Court

The Supreme Court has decided to consider for admission BJP MLC Janardhan Reddy’s petition on corruption charges against Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and two other Ministers in the mining scam only after a writ petition pending in the High Court on the matter is withdrawn.

According to information reaching here, a bench of Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice C K Thakker told senior counsel Harish Salve appearing for Reddy to withdraw a similar petition pending before the Karnataka High Court before the apex court could consider his plea.

“You first decide where you want to pursue the case. If you want the case to be heard here, you should first withdraw your petition in the (Karnataka) High Court”, Chief Justice Sabharwal said.

Before moving the Supreme Court, Reddy had filed a writ petition in Karnataka High Court seeking a CBI probe into his allegation that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his ministerial colleagues C Chennigappa and M P Prakash had collected a bribe amount of Rs 1.5 billion from the illegal mine owners of Bellary district in Karnataka.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s suggestion, Reddy has filed a memo in the Karnataka High Court seeking withdrawal of the writ petition seeking CBI probe against the Chief Minister and two of his ministerial colleagues.

In the memo, Reddy said he wished to withdraw the case from the High Court as he had filed a similar petition in the Supreme Court.

In the writ petition, Reddy had claimed that Home Minister M P Prakash and Forest Minister C Chennigappa had threatened to close down mining activity if the mine owners did not cough up sums of money. Subsequently, Reddy said he had come to know that the Chief Minister and his relatives had made huge investments in immovable properties. He said the acquisitions so made were found to be disproportionate to their known sources of income.