‘Muted’ as Supreme Court granted relief to BS Yediyurappa, complainant to appeal stay

Advocate KV Dhananjay on Saturday, 24 July, released a letter in response to the stay granted by the Supreme Court in the corruption case against BS Yediyurappa.

He told South First that in 10 days they would appeal to the Supreme Court to get the stay against Yediyurappa vacated.

Clearing the air

Dhananjay claimed that the caveator was not heard by the Supreme Court before it granted a stay on the corruption trial.

He asked why an opposing argument from the complainant was not allowed even though his caveat was mentioned in the Supreme Court’s list.

“When the case was called, learned Senior Counsel for BS Yeddyurappa began his argument and must have argued for 14 seconds, during which time I was put on ‘unmute’ by the operator. The Chief Justice then said ‘Issue Notice; Stay’, and I was immediately muted by the operator and the next case was called,” read the letter.

He also said in the letter that he tried to explain to the operator that he was the respondent in the case and was muted, and thus “the appeal is infructuous”.

Dhananjay mentioned in his letter that by the time he was unmuted, the Bench had finished for the day and left.

As for why he was issuing a letter, Dhananjay told South First, “I am the one representing the caveat in the Supreme Court, and I have a public duty to explain.”

Transparency in corruption cases

Sources in  the complainant’s legal team told South First that it was important that parties handling a corruption case had to explain the developments of the case, as well as what happened and why, and be transparent with the general public.

The complainant wanted the high court to pass observations against the Lokayukta police for not concluding their investigations against BSY in nearly five years.

A senior Supreme Court lawyer, Dhananjay represents complainant Vasudeva Reddy, who filed a private complaint in 2013 against BSY for illegal denotification of government lands to private entities.

In 2015, a special court in Bengaluru directed a criminal investigation under the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988, based on the complaint.