Centre, Lokayukta defend Karnataka Governor

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New Delhi/Bangalore, Jan 22, 2010: The Centre has backed Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj and sharpened its attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claiming that allegations of corruption against the BS Yeddyurappa government are on the record.

Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram blasted the BJP saying that the party was defending a corrupt government in Karnataka.

"There is a rule of law in the country. Nobody is above law. Rule of law applies to the chief minister and all the ministers. Chief minister did all the corruption without any shame, it’s clear in the report. The governor had to submit this report. The BJP is defending corruption in the land," said Moily.

Chidambaram in a statement said that Bhardwaj is nit the first governor to sanction the prosecution of a chief minister.

"The government has taken note of the developments in Karnataka. It is not the first time that a governor has given his sanction to prosecute a chief minister or a minister of the state government. We invite the BJP’s attention to the statement made by Shri Justice Santosh Hegde, Lokayukta of Karnataka, who has observed that the governor had the jurisdiction to grant sanction for prosecution," said Chidambaram.

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, too, said that as per the law a governor can ignore the advioce of the state Cabinet if "the governor feels that the advice has come because of bias or some partisan attitude".

"As a question of law the governor has in a given circumstances the power to ignore the directions or advice of the Cabinet, especially in areas where the governor feels that the advice has come because of bias or some partisan attitude. In the instant case from what I head on the television or read from the newspaper, two lawyers had filed a complaint and governor had summoned the documents and he had examined and verified the correctness of the documents. Then he has come to the conclusion that the advice given by the governme nt not to give sanction is out of personal prejudice or involving bias and various other factors involving protection of the chief minister. Therefore, in my opinion the governor can ignore and then decide," said Hegde.

Hegde said that mere granting of sanction to prosecute the chief minister was not enough and charges had to be proved.

"Why not? This is a very, very preliminary stage. It is only a sanction and those people must still go and give a complaint and that complaint has to be studied by the judge. He may prima facie get an FIR registered and ask a police officer to investigate and again tell the court whether it is a fit case for proceeding or not. Sanction is only an initial process. If the government was a private body then no sanction was required," he said.

"Lokayukta had stopped the investigation with due respect to the court. The matter is sub judice," he added.

Bhardwaj had on Friday night granted sanction for prosection of Yeddyurappa over corruption charges. The permission was granted on a complaint by two lawyers, Sirajin Basha and KN Balaraj, on December 28 following allegations that that Yeddyurappa had favoured his family members with prime land in and around Bangalore.

Basha and Balraj filed two cases against the Chief Minister on Saturday and will file six more cases on Monday.