MUDA Case: Just a day after the Karnataka High Court upheld the governor’s sanction for an inquiry against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leader Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal flayed BJP by accusing the party of adopting ‘chhura” tactics to destroy democratically elected governments. Sibal also used the platform to lament how the governor’s office is misused to bring down state governments and said a national movement needs to be launched against this practice.
Sibal Urges Removal of Those Betraying Constitutional Mandate
He suggested that those who through their actions are demonstrably betraying the mandate of the Constitution in a federal structure should be sent packing from this state. The opposition parties, he appealed to, should join hands together to raise their collective voice to save India’s federal structure from such “sensational utterances.” In his view, the governor has no constitutional power to decide all of a sudden in his whimsical discretion that criminal charges leveled against an individual are vitiated in absence of prior magisterial inquiry.
Supreme Court’s Role vs Governor’s Authority in Prosecution Sanctions
Sibal correctly pointed out that although the Supreme Court established the governor as the competent authority to impart prosecution sanctions against a chief minister, the Constitution does not expressively vest such authority with the governor. This power is to be conferred by the judiciary; the governor alone cannot decide the case according to his own views if there is sufficient cause for prosecution.
Case in point: Alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 plots by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife. What has given this a controversy angle is the decision of Governor Thawarchand Gehlot to allow an inquiry into the matter, which has been challenged by Siddaramaiah in the court.
BJP’s ‘Nefarious Designs’ to Undermine Elected Governments
Sibal took to ‘X’ (former Twitter) social media, alleging that the BJP was resorting to nefarious designs to break elected governments by luring MLAs, misusing constitutional provisions, and instilling fear through agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
While defending Sibal’s stance, Congress accused the Centre of having consistently mishandled the office of the Governor of Karnataka. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the party will take the case legally and politically and will not oblige what he called “nefarious intentions” of the BJP.