Congress-led Karnataka Government suffered a major blow on Monday with the Supreme Court holding its action to remove the special public prosecutor in the DA case trial of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa as “malafide” and ordering his reinstatement.
As the trial judge in the case was due to retire on Monday, the bench took an extraordinary step to recommend to the Karnataka High Court of considering an extension for the Presiding Judge to complete the trial.
Not stopping at criticising the State Government for its failure to oppose the appointment of G Bhavani Singh made on February 2, 2013, the court made a stinging remark for opposing the appointment in court, hinting at a political motive behind the move to abruptly withdraw his appointment on August 26.
The bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Sharad A Bobde, who had called the files from the High Court and State Government with regard to Bhavani Singh’s appointment and removal, found a clear shift in decision-making following the change of Government in May 2013 with Congress replacing the BJP in the State.
This reason formed a major ground for the court to strike off the order withdrawing Singh’s appointment.
It said: “It is apparent on record that the switch-over of Government in between has resulted in a sudden change of opinion that is abrupt for no discernable legally sustainable reason. The sharp transitional decision was an act of clear unwarranted indiscretion actuated by an intention that does not appear to be founded on good faith.”
The bench held the State's silence at the time of Singh's appointment to be its approval and said: "The Government thus voluntarily acquiesced in the process and is now not entitled to raise this grievance."
With the SPP back, the bench further noted that the case records ran into 34,000 pages which may make speedy trial in the case extremely difficult as a new judge may require "long time" to understand the factual and legal niceties of the case, due to which it requested the CJ of Karnataka to "urgently" consider passing a decision acting on his administrative side.