External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court's order refusing to stay the probe initiated against him by the Lokayukta police in the mining case.
Acting on a complaint, the Lokayukta is probing charges that Mr. Krishna, during his tenure as Chief Minister, in violation of the rules, de-reserved forest areas in ecologically fragile zones.
On January 20, the High Court, while refusing to stall the probe, however, quashed charges of mismanagement of the State-owned Mysore Minerals Ltd (MML) against him.
MML is the nodal agency of the State for the supply of iron ore to various firms, thereby causing loss to the firm.
‘High Court order erroneous'
In his appeal, Mr. Krishna said the High Court order holding that investigation would continue into a Cabinet decision on de-reserving of forest area was erroneous.
He said the Cabinet decision was a collective one taken by 34 Ministers and an individual could not be held responsible for it.
Further, the policy decision of the government could not be challenged in a court of law.
Social activist T.J. Abraham had filed a private complaint against Mr. Krishna as well as against other former Chief Ministers, H.D. Kumaraswamy and N. Dharam Singh, seeking action against them for allegedly facilitating illegal mining.
Mr. Krishna sought a direction to quash the impugned order and an interim stay of its operation.
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