The Supreme Court on Monday finally allowed the withdrawal of two special leave petitions against former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in mining-related land deal cases ahead of the forest bench’s hearing on the CEC’s report recommending CBI inquiry into the matter.
However, the special forest bench could not assemble on Monday as one of the judges, Justice Aftab Alam, was busy in his regular bench.
Counsel for D.M. Vishwanath and Srijan Basha, who were complainants in the Lokayukta case against Mr Yeddyurappa submitted that they had filed affidavit explaining the reasons to withdraw the case.
Justices T.S. Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra expressed surprise over the manner in which the SLPs were sought to be withdrawn with filing the affidavits.
“We fail to understand if you want to withdraw then why the affidavits. You should have made up your mind before filing of the SLPs,” the bench observed.
In a brief order, the SC said, “The petitioners have filed application and affidavits stating that they want permission to withdraw the petitions. The petitions are dismissed as withdrawn.”
The counsel, though were not ready to reveal the reasons given in the affidavit for the withdrawal of the petitions stating that they had no “instruction” to share it with the media, but the complainants apparently withdrew the SLPs as they felt that these were coming in the way of the forest bench taking cognisance of the CEC report.
The forest bench, headed by Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia, had earlier adjourned the hearing twice on the CEC report related to Mr Yeddyurappa to avoid “overlapping” of the issues in the two SLPs related to the Lokayukta case and the CEC report.