ITEM NO.302 COURT NO.4 SECTION PIL-W

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

I.A. NOS. 242,243,248,268 IN Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 562/2009

SAMAJ PARIVARTANA SAMUDAYA & ORS. Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

STATE OF KARNATAKA & ORS. Respondent(s)

Date : 09-08-2017 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAFULLA C. PANT HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE NAVIN SINHA

Amicus Curiae Mr. Shyam Divan, Sr. Advocate (A.C.)

Mr. A.D.N Rao, Advocate (A.C.),

Mr. Siddhartha Chowdhury, Adv (A.C.)

For Parties

Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Adv. Mr. Govind Jee, Adv.

Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Sr. Adv. Ms. Anitha Shenoy, AOR Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, Adv. Mr. Ishwar, Adv.

Mr. C.A. Sundaram, Sr. Adv. Mr. Rohit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Aditya narayan, Adv. Mr. Rounak Nayak, Adv.

Mr. Kumar Dushyant Singh, Adv.

Mr. Maninder Singh, ASG Mr. Rajiv Nanda, Adv. Mr. P.K. Dey, Adv. Mr. R. Balasubramanian, Adv. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, Adv.

Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR

Mr. Maninder Singh, ASG

Mr. Syed Abdul Haseeb, Adv. Ms. Vimla Sinha, Adv. Ms. Anil Katiyar, AOR Ms. Indu Malhotra, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vikas Mehta, AOR Ms. Amrit Sanghi, Adv. Mr. Tanvir Nayar, Adv. Ms. Anushree Menon, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh, Adv. Mr. Chander Uday Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Rajat Jariwal, Adv. Mr. Aakash Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev K. Kapoor, Adv. For M/s. Khaitan & Co., AOR Mr. Huzefa Ahmadi, Sr. Adv. Mr. K.N. Phanindra, Adv. Mr. Jayant Mohan, AOR Mr. Karan Mathur, Adv. Mr. Anjuman Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Chandra Prakash, AOR Mr. Vivek Singh, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Ranjan, Adv. Mr. Kabir Hathi, Adv. Ms. Asha G. Nair, Adv. Ms. Snidha Mehra, Adv. Mr. Hemant Arya, Adv. Ms. Kirti Dua, Adv. Ms. Saudamini Sharma, Adv. Mr. Dinesh Kumar Garg, AOR Ms. Rachna Gandhi, Adv. Mr. Deepak Mishra, Adv. Mr. Sunil Dogra, Adv. Mr. Vivek Vishnoi, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Sharma, AOR Mr. Kunal Chatterji, Adv. Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, AOR Mr. S.S. Shamsherty, AAG Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Ankit Raj, Adv. Ms. Ruchi Kohli, AOR Mr. K. Raghavacharyulu, Adv. Mr. Kailash pandey, Adv.

Mr. Ranjeet Singh, Adv. Ms. Aparna Bhat, AOR M/s. Karanjawala & Co., AOR Mrs. Kirti Renu Mishra, AOR Ms. Ranjeeta Rohatgi, AOR Mr. O. P. Bhadani, AOR Mr. P. S. Sudheer, AOR Mr. Kunal Verma, AOR Mr. K. V. Sreekumar, AOR Mr. Bhargava V. Desai, AOR Mr. Shreekant N. Terdal, AOR Ms. Manjula Gupta, AOR Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR Mr. Prashant Kumar, AOR Mr. A. Raghunath, AOR Mrs. Sudha Gupta, AOR Mr. Rajesh Mahale, AOR Mr. Naveen R. Nath, AOR Mr. Sushil Balwada, AOR M/s. Parekh & Co., AOR Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR Mr. P. V. Dinesh, AOR Mr. Senthil Jagadeesan, AOR Mr. Sridhar Potaraju, AOR

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Mr. Balaji Srinivasan, AOR M/s. Ap & J Chambers, AOR Ms. A. Sumathi, AOR Mr. Neeraj Shekhar, AOR Mr. G. N. Reddy, AOR Mr. Samir Ali Khan, AOR Mr. Ankur S. Kulkarni, AOR Mrs. Vaijayanthi Girish, AOR Mr. Merusagar Samantaray, AOR Ms. Uttara Babbar, AOR Mr. Anil Kumar Mishra-I, AOR Mr. Adarsh Upadhyay, AOR Mr. Snehasish Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Shailesh Madiyal, AOR Mr. Munawwar Naseem, AOR Mr. Akhil Anand, AOR

Mr. Rajeev Maheshwaranand Roy, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

I.A. NOS. 242 & 243 of 2015

We have considered the report filed by the C.B.I. pursuant to the order of this Court dated 27.07.2017.

We have heard the learned counsel for the writ petitioners in Writ Petition No.562 of 2009. Shri Maninder Singh, learned Additional Solicitor General has also been heard.

So far as Regular Case (RC)-18(A)-2011/CBI/ACB/BLR is concerned, it appears from the report of the C.B.I. that accused Smt. G. Lakshmi Aruna and Shri Shivalinga Murthy, the then Director General of Mines and Geology, Government of Karnataka had been discharged by the learned Trial Court, against which order the C.B.I. has instituted Criminal Revision Petition (CR.R.P.) No.838/2016 before the Karnataka High Court insofar as the accused Sivalinga Murthy is concerned. The grievance raised is that the C.B.I. has not taken any steps to challenge the discharge order insofar as the accused G.Lakshmi Aruna is concerned.

We do not see how in the present proceedings we can issue any direction to the C.B.I. to act in a particular manner. The Investigating Agency as well as the learned Courts exercising jurisdiction matters must be left to act freely but in accordance with law.

The applicant(s)/petitioner(s), if they are aggrieved by any action or inaction on the part of the C.B.I. will naturally be free to ventilate their grievances in an appropriate proceeding before the appropriate forum.

Insofar as the status of (RC)-18(A)-2011/CBI/ACB/BLR is concerned, it appears that against the discharge orders passed in respect of all the seven accused, the C.B.I. has instituted seven different criminal revision proceedings before the High Court of Karnataka and the same are presently pending. We request the High Court of Karnataka to expedite the consideration of the aforesaid criminal proceedings and hear and dispose of the same at the earliest convenience.

I.A. Nos. 242 and 243 are disposed of in the above terms.

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I.A. No.268 of 2016

Shri Raju Ramachandran, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the State of Karnataka, has submitted that the details and particulars of the bidders are awaited as the technical bids have been opened today in the morning and the process of scrutiny is under way. He, therefore, prays for some time to lay before the Court the detailed information in this regard.

The details of the result of the bidding be made available to all the contesting parties and also to Shri Shyam Divan, learned Amicus Curiae, so that their responses to the said bidding process is available to the Court on or before 14th August, 2017.

List the matter on 16th August, 2017 at 2.00 p.m.

I.A. No.248 of 2015

Heard the learned counsel for the parties. Hearing concluded.

Judgment reserved.

Parties may file their written arguments within three days from today.

(NEETU KHAJURIA) COURT MASTER

(ASHA SONI) BRANCH OFFICER