Bangalore:
The news was not all good from the Karnataka High Court for external affairs minister SM Krishna. The court ordered today that an investigation would continue into the decisions of his government when he was chief minister to denotify forest land to allow mining.
Mr Krishna had hoped that the FIR filed by the Lokayukta police against him on the issue would be quashed.
Investigations in the case will also continue against former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, the High Court said.
The Bangalore Lokayukta police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Mr Krishna on December 8. The FIR also named Dharam Singh and Mr Kumaraswamy, who succeeded Mr Krishna as Chief Ministers.
This followed a private complaint in the Lokayukta court by a businessman and social activist, T J Abraham, accusing Mr Krishna of taking decisions like de-reserving forest areas to facilitate illegal mining during his tenure as Chief Minister from 1999 to 2003. Lokayukta Court Judge NK Sudhindra Rao had directed the police to investigate the complaint.
"The honourable High Court has allowed the petition filed by Sri SM Krishna in part. It has quashed the reference to Mysore Minerals Ltd - but however, in respect of the dereservation policy, the Cabinet decision and the fallouts of it are to be looked into in the further investigation. But nevertheless we are contemplating to see whether an appeal could be filed before the Supreme Court of India," said Sandeep Patil, advocate for Mr Krishna.
Mr Krishna had earlier dismissed the allegations against him and said that he never handled the mines portfolio. He maintained that he did not permit de-reserving of forests for mining. Mr Krishna declined comment on today's ruling, saying that his lawyers would go through the judgement.
"Lawyers will look into it. There is no question of resignation, I will respond only after the Opposition demands it," he said.
The former chief ministers had approached the High Court with a plea to quash the FIR filed against them. Clearly, the issue of illegal iron ore mining continues to haunt Karnataka's top politicians.