Disproportionate Assets Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Chief Minister DK Shivkumar’s Plea to Quash CBI’s case against him

Today (July 15, 2024), the Supreme Court (SC) of India was hearing a petition filed by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar against the decision of the Karnataka High Court (HC) rejecting his plea to quash the CBI’s (Central Bureau of Investigation) FIR in the disproportionate assets case. The bench constituting Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed the petition stating that it was not inclined to interfere with the Karnataka High Court’s order. During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Shivkumar, contended that the investigation into the matter had been commenced without obtaining the sanction under Section 17A of the PCA (Prevention of Corruption Act). While referring to the split verdict given by the SC judges Justice Trivedi and Justice Aniruddha Bose in the Chandrababu Naidu case, he further argued, “We are on a new question. The ground is this Court has held that if the predicate offence is only conspiracy, it cannot be a standalone offence and it has to be added by some other offence as well…” Justice Trivedi replied, “We cannot quash the case on the basis of split verdict by this Court.” The Counsel for Shivkumar further submitted that in the same case, his client was being probed by the Income Tax authorities.  However, the bench remarked, “But you are also prosecuted under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. Income Tax authorities can't prosecute under the PC Act. We can't interfere. Sorry.”