Karnataka HC refuses to quash land-grabbing case against ex-Congress minister; asks why his MLA-son not made an accused

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday refused to quash a land grabbing case against former Congress minister MC Chowdareddy and former Chintamani municipality commissioner BH Narayanappa [BH Narayanappa v State & Ors, MC Chowdareddy v State].

Justice M Nagaprasanna also demanded why Chowdareddy's sons, MC Balaji and MC Sudhakar, the latter a sitting Congress MLA, were not made accused in the case.

“Though the material prima facie discloses that M.C. Balaji and M.C. Sudhakar were direct beneficiaries, both stand conspicuously absent from the array of accused. How beneficiaries of allegedly grabbed Government land remain outside the dragnet of crime is a matter that raises serious concern," the Bench said.

Hence, the Court dismissed the petitions filed by the accused for quashing of the criminal case registered against them by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2017.

The Court directed the investigating agency to conclude the probe within six months. It observed that land grabbing by those in power erodes public faith in governance and the Court will not stall the probe.

“Land grabbing by ordinary citizens is a serious illegality. Land grabbing by those clothed with political power strikes at something far deeper—it erodes public faith in governance itself. When custodians of public trust become beneficiaries of alleged public wrongs. This Court cannot permit investigation to be throttled at inception in a matter of such gravity. To interdict investigation, at this stage, would amount to shutting the door on truth, before it has even entered the room. Investigation, therefore, is not merely warranted; it is indispensable,” the judge said.

The dispute involves 1 acre and 18 guntas of government land in Chintamani taluk's Kannampalli village bearing survey no. 11. It was classified as unarable government land in 1965-66.

Chowdareddy's family owned lands bearing survey nos. 12 and 13 and which lie adjacent to the government land. After he was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Chintamani constituency in 1989, Chowdareddy applied to convert the adjacent survey nos. 12 and 13 from agriculture to non-agricultural land.

In this process, it is alleged that the land bearing survey No. 11 was also encroached by the family. The land bearing survey no. 11 was then divided among MC Chowdareddy's sons MC Balaji and MC Sudhakar - who is the current MLA from Chintamani.

MC Balaji is alleged to have further gone on to execute an unregistered general power of attorney in favour of the Government Employees House Building Co-operative Society, leading to further transfer of the sites in question.

A complaint highlighting the illegalities was later filed by a councillor of Chintamani Municipal Council. In response to a notice by Tahsildar, MC Chowdareddy and MC Balaji claimed adverse possession of the land.

Subsequently, a complaint was made to the ACB which conducted a preliminary enquiry and then registered a formal case against the accused.

In the verdict declining to quash the criminal case, the Court said the government land appears to have been treated as though it was ancestral property and dealt with as a commodity of private ownership.

"Sites were formed. Sites were sold. Khatas were issued. Third-party interests were created. Government land had, for all practical purposes, vanished beneath concrete and private possession," the Court noted.

The Court further said that it cannot stall the probe at this stage against Narayanappa, the then Commissioner of the Town Municipal Council.

The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate YR Sadashiva Reddy, and Advocates Deepak J, and BK Manjunath.

High Court Government Pleader Thejesh P appeared for the State.

Special Public Prosecutor Venkatesh Arbatti appeared for the Karnataka Lokayukhta and Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Advocates Keerthy Reddy, Mayur D Bhanu, and Padmanabha J appeared for the complainant.

[Read Judgment]