Karnataka High Court quashes BJP’s defamation case against Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and KPCC

Bengaluru Extending the benefit of an earlier order that quashed the BJP’s defamation case against Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, the High Court of Karnataka has now quashed the defamation proceedings against Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) over the Congress’s advertisements in newspapers in May 2023 that alleged corruption in the then BJP government. Justice M.

Nagaprasanna allowed two criminal petitions filed by Mr. Siddaramaiah, Mr. Shivakumar, and the KPCC seeking quashing of proceedings pending before a special court in Bengaluru.

The court held that the three petitioners were entitled to the same relief granted earlier to Mr. Gandhi, against whom proceedings arising out of the same advertisement had already been quashed by a coordinate Bench of the High Court.