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Friday, March 29 2024
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State govt gets notice for withdrawal of 570 cases against political leaders

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Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government, as well as the police department, for the withdrawal of 570 cases against various political leaders based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The Prosecution Department under the state government has also been asked to respond to the notice.

The PIL, filed by a Bengaluru-based advocate, alleged that over 570 cases were withdrawn by the governments between August 8, 2014 and May 5, 2020.

The PIL was taken up by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justices S. Vishwajith Shetty and Abhay Shreenivas Oka, who asked the state government “to justify whether it has power to issue directions to the Director of Prosecution for withdrawing any criminal cases under Section 321 of the Code Criminal Procedure, 1973”, TNM reported.

It can be recalled that the Government of Karnataka had, in the first week of September, announced that it has withdraw 62 criminal cases against its MPs and MLAs based on the recommendation of a sub-committee headed by Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The government went ahead with the decision despite opposition from the Director General and Inspector General of Police(DG-IGP) and the Director of Prosecution.

Members of the Opposition and several activists also criticised the move, stating that it was done with an ulterior motive to protect the leaders. The state government denied these allegations saying that the move was routine and was done as the cases were filed against the leaders for taking up ‘public issues.’

The law minister even stated that the withdrawal of these cases was “in public interest and would reduce the burden on courts.

According to section 321 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973 (‘Withdrawal from prosecution’), “The Public Prosecutor or Assistant Public Prosecutor in charge of a case may, with the consent of the Court, at any time before the judgment is pronounced, withdraw from the prosecution of any person either generally or in respect of any one or more of the offences for which he is tried.”

Some of the leaders whose cases were dropped include the law, tourism and agriculture ministers.

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