MUDA case: Man who sold land to Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law 20 years ago moves Karnataka High Court

79-year-old Devaraju challenges September 24 order stating that remarks against him were made without hearing him

Devaraju J., who had sold 3 acres of land at Kesare village to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s brother-in-law way back in 2004 after getting the land denotified from the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), on Wednesday moved the High Court of Karnataka challenging the single judge’s order of upholding the sanction given by the Governor of Karnataka to probe the complaint against Mr. Siddaramaiah.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Mr. Devaraju, mentioned the filing of an appeal before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind while requesting the Bench for an urgent hearing on it.

Mr. Devaraju, who is now 79 and residing in Bengaluru, has questioned the September 24 judgment of the single judge, who had dismissed Mr. Siddaramaiah’s petition, in which the Chief Minister had questioned the legality of the sanction granted on August 16 by the Governor allowing the probe into the complaints of alleged illegal allotment of 14 sites worth ₹56 crore to Parvathi, Mr. Siddaramaiah’s wife, by MUDA.

Mr. Dave orally told the Bench that Mr. Devaraju was not a party to the proceedings before the single judge but “damning observations were made against them [Mr. Devaraju and others] while giving a finding on what had happened about 25 years ago”.

In political slugfest

“We are now getting caught in this political slugfest between these powerful politicians...,” Mr. Dave said while claiming that Mr. Devaraju is a small landholder and as a result of the single judge’s verdict he has to face serious repercussions in both civil and criminal liabilities.

“A fight between certain public-spirited citizens and the CM in which I have nothing to do. I sold my land in 2004 which was denotifed in 1998... Without making me [Mr. Devaraju] a party, the single judge says the denotification is bad, and the sale deed of 2004 is bad...”, Mr. Dave contended orally.

The court posted the appeal filed by Mr. Devaraju for hearing on November 23, the day on which the appeal filed by Mr. Siddaramaiah against the single judge’s verdict is scheduled for hearing.

The single judge’s verdict points that the denotification of 3 acres and 16 guntas of land itself was illegal while pointing out that Mr. Devaraju had played fraud with MUDA as he had claimed that he had no income other than that from this agricultural land even though he was a teacher working under the Department of Public Instruction. The single judge had also questioned how Mr. Devaraju got the right to seek denotification of land over which he had relinquished his right long ago.

B.M. Mallikarjunaswamy, brother of Ms. Pravathi, had purchased this land from Mr. Devaraju in 2004. He gifted it in 2010 to Ms. Parvathi, who subsequently claimed that MUDA had illegally used this land of hers to form a layout. MUDA had allotted 14 sites in a posh locality in Mysuru as compensation for utilising her land without acquiring it.

Published - November 20, 2024 08:09 pm IST