The Karnataka High Court has rejected a petition filed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah challenging the Governor’s sanction to prosecute him in the MUDA land allotment case.

The single judge bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna pronounced that the governor can make an independent decision and that his order to prosecute CM does not suffer from non-application of mind. On August 16, Governor Thawarchand Gehlot sanctioned proceedings against the CM under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Siddaramaiah had challenged the order on August 19.

The anti-corruption activists T J Abharam, Snehamayi Krishna, and Pradeep Kumar had sought permission from the Governor to begin prosecution, alleging that CM Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi received 14 housing sites from MUDA in exchange for a 3.16-acre plot of land that the MUDA land development agency in Mysuru had acquired in 2021. They alleged that this resulted in a loss of 55.80 crore rupees to the state exchequer.