States » SouthPosted at: Nov 15 2026 8:18PM


Karnataka HC quashes SC/ST Act case against Baba Kalyani

Bengaluru, Nov 15 (UNI) The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, against Bharat Forge Chairman Babasaheb N Kalyani, businessman Ashok Kheny and D Ravishankar, holding that the unexplained 11-year delay in filing the complaint amounted to an abuse of the process of law.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, in an order dated November 4, allowed a criminal petition and a connected writ petition challenging the proceedings arising from a land dispute linked to the NICE road project in Bengaluru.
The case originated from allegations relating to land in Survey No. 86 of Kodigehalli village. The complainants, S Rajendran, S Meganathan and S Sampath, alleged that their father had received two acres of land through a government grant and accused the petitioners of illegally entering the property, damaging an educational society's building and subjecting them to caste-based abuses on March 31, 2007.
However, the complainants approached the Special Court only on July 16, 2018, filing a private complaint under the SC/ST Act and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
The police subsequently filed a 'B' report, but the Special Court directed further investigation on February 27, 2025. Challenging the continuation of the proceedings, the accused approached the High Court, citing the unexplained gap between the alleged incident and the filing of the complaint.
Examining the complaint and the surrounding circumstances, the High Court observed that while the allegations related to an incident in March 2007, the criminal complaint was initiated only after 11 years, without any satisfactory explanation for the delay.
"This forms a classic illustration as to the misuse and abuse of the provisions of the Act. The narration in the complaint begins in the year 2007 and ends in 2018, but the incident remains only of 2007," the court observed.
Questioning the delay, Justice Nagaprasanna remarked, "If everything has happened in the year 2007 why did the respondents wait to register the crime for 11 long years remains completely unexplained, even in the complaint. Therefore, the complaint is full of embellishments."
The High Court also referred to Supreme Court judgments, including Mahmood Ali v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Anita Maurya v. State of Uttar Pradesh, reiterating that courts can examine the surrounding circumstances when criminal proceedings appear to have been initiated with an ulterior motive.
Holding that the unexplained delay and the circumstances surrounding the complaint rendered the continuation of the proceedings an abuse of the judicial process, the court quashed the case.
Accordingly, it allowed both petitions and set aside the proceedings in P.C.R. No. 36 of 2018 pending before the LXX Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge and Special Judge, Bengaluru, against the three petitioners.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Karnataka HC quashes SC/ST Act case against Baba Kalyani
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