SC withdraws contempt notice on K'taka MLC Reddy

New Delhi, Jan 25: The Supreme Court today withdrew contempt notice issued against Karnataka Member of Legislative Council (MLC) G Janardhan Reddy who had filed a PIL seeking a CBI enquiry against Karnataka Chief Minister H Kumaraswamy and his family members for allegedly acquiring assets beyond their known sources of income by corrupt means.

A three Judge Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice D K Jain severely reprimanded petitioner H Siddanna for obtaining the order by misleading the court.

The petitioner had alleged that Janardhan Reddy and m/s Black Bolt were illegally expecting minerals for the last ten years and smuggling the same to the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh causing a loss of several crores of rupees to Karnataka.

Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatagi appearing for Janardhan Reddy alleged that the petitioner has been put up by the Karnataka Chief Minister.

The angry court when informed that Janardhan Reddy was not even a party in the main petition recalled the contempt notices against all the four respondents. The court also rejected the plea of Senior Counsel Ruington Nariman that the petitioner should be allowed to file counter.

The court however told the petitioner that his conduct was not bonafiding and he has deliberately abused the process by misleading the top court of the country.

UNI