Supreme Court stays orders of Karnataka HC judge who criticised Anti-Corruption Bureau
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that the High Court made irrelevant observations while hearing the bail petition.
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a number of observations and directives by Karnataka High Court judge HP Sandesh rebuking the state Anti-Corruption Bureau, Live Law reported.
On July 4, Justice Sandesh had orally alleged that he was threatened with a transfer for hearing a corruption case being handled by Karnataka anti-corruption bureau. He had told the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s counsel that the additional director general of police was very powerful, The Wire reported.
Sandesh had made the statement while hearing a bail application filed by Deputy Tahsildar PS Mahesh, who was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to get a favourable order on a land dispute case from the Bengaluru (Urban) deputy commissioner’s office.
Mahesh had claimed in a statement that he took the bribe on the instructions of J Manjunath – then the Bengaluru Urban deputy commissioner – but the senior official was not named in the first information report.
On July 11, the judge put the allegations of having received threats for passing orders against the head of Anti-Corruption Bureau Seemanth Kumar on record.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau chief, Additional Director General of Police Seemant Kumar Singh, and Indian Administrative Services officer J Manjunath moved the Supreme Court against Sandesh’s comments. Manjunath was arrested on July 12 after the critical remarks by the High Court judge.
On Monday, a bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli observed that Sandesh’s observations were irrelvant to the bail petition, Live Law reported. The bench directed the High Court to decide on the bail petition, filed by the deputy tahsildar and stayed all other related proceedings.
“Prima facie, the observations made were unconnected to the bail petition,” the court said. “The observations were not made within the ambit of bail proceedings. The conduct of the ACB officer is unconnected to the bail petition.”
The Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s directives calling for Singh’s service records and closure reports filed by the agency.