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Why did the Supreme Court decide to pause the POCSO trial against former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and what crucial questions about the investigation and previous court orders will now guide the next stage of judicial scrutiny?
Case concerns allegations that Yediyurappa assaulted a 17 year old girl.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a stay on the ongoing trial against former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in the case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant along with Justice Joymalya considered a Special Leave Petition challenging the Karnataka High Courts refusal to quash the proceedings. The stay will remain in effect while the bench examines whether the matter should be remanded to the High Court for fresh evaluation on merits.
The bench also issued notices to the State CID and the private complainant on the limited issue of whether the legal questions raised by the petitioner require a renewed hearing. This development marks a significant turn in a case that has moved through multiple judicial stages since early 2024.
Senior Advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Dave submitted that the High Court had earlier declined to examine the substantive objections raised by the former Chief Minister. They contended that the earlier ruling which quashed the initial cognisance order had specifically granted liberty to Yediyurappa to raise all legally permissible objections before the trial court. According to them the High Court overlooked this direction and relied instead on earlier observations indicating that the matter needed to proceed to trial.
Luthra further told the court that his client an 88 year old four time Chief Minister was being subjected to proceedings driven by political vendetta. The Supreme Court noted these submissions and agreed to consider whether the High Court was required to look deeper into the merits rather than restrict itself to procedural history.
The case stems from a complaint filed by the mother of a 17 year old girl who alleged that Yediyurappa had sexually assaulted her daughter during a meeting at his Bengaluru residence in February last year. The Sadashivanagar police registered the complaint on March 14 2024 which was later transferred to the CID. The investigating agency re registered the FIR and subsequently submitted a chargesheet invoking Section 8 of the POCSO Act along with Sections 354A 204 and 214 read with Section 37 of the Indian Penal Code.
Karnataka High Court refuses to quash POCSO case against former CM Yediyurappa
Earlier in February 2025 the Karnataka High Court partially allowed a petition filed by the former Chief Minister which challenged the trial courts July 2024 cognisance order. The High Court described that order as lacking clarity and not conforming to the requirements laid out under the Code of Criminal Procedure. It remitted the matter back to the trial court with instructions to reconsider the question of cognisance.
Following this the Special Court issued a fresh order on February 28 taking cognisance of the offences. The High Court had also highlighted that the voluntary statement of the victim before a magistrate and the forensic report confirming that an audio video recording was not tampered with were matters that required examination during a complete trial as the report alone could not establish guilt.
The Supreme Courts intervention has now paused the proceedings and brought the focus back to the question of whether the High Court must revisit the issues it declined to assess. As the case awaits the responses sought by the bench several procedural and evidentiary questions remain central to how the matter will progress.
