Supreme Court Stays Trial Against Ex-Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa In POCSO Act Case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the trial proceedings against former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in a case for 'sexual assault' of a child under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act).

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya was considering the Special Leave Petition filed by Yediyurappa against the November 13 order of the Karnataka High Court which refused to quash the case lodged against him.

The bench issued notice on the petition to the State CID and the private respondent for the limited purpose of examining if the matter should be remanded back to the High Court for fresh consideration on merits.

Senior Advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Dave appeared for Yediyurappa. They argued that the High Court wrongly refrained from considering the merits of the argument by taking the view that the judgments in the earlier rounds held that the matter should be decided in a trial. They argued that the previous judgment - which had quashed the first cognizance order and asked the trial court to consider the matter again- had also reserved the liberty of the petitioner to raise the objections. "He is an 88 year old man, 4-time CM. Suffering due to political vendetta," Luthra submitted.

As per the complaint lodged by victim's mother, Yediyurappa sexually assaulted her then 17-year-old daughter during a meeting in February last year, at his residence in Bengaluru. On March 14, 2024, the Sadashivanagar police had registered the case. Later, it was transferred to CID for further investigation which re-registered the FIR and filed a chargesheet.

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