BENGALURU: An FIR has been registered against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a land scam case. The Lokayukta police have registered a case against Siddaramaiah in a corruption case. The case pertains to the allotment of land by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), to his wife BM Parvathi.

The Karnataka High Court had earlier upheld the governor's sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the case. A bench headed by Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed Siddaramaiah's plea which alleged that Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot's action was illegal.

Normally, the governor has to act according to the decision of the cabinet. In exceptional circumstances, the governor can decide on his own. The high court said that this is such a situation and a probe is required. Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Siddaramaiah. The court also rejected the plea to stay the proceedings for two weeks.

The governor gave the sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah on the complaint of anti-corruption activists TJ Abraham, Pradeep Kumar and Snehamayi Krishna. The permission was granted under sections 17 and 218 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

In his plea, Siddaramaiah argued that the governor's permission to prosecute him in a land deal in which he was neither an accused nor a partner was illegal. He also alleged that the case was politically motivated. In order to establish that the Governor should act on the advice of the Cabinet, the state cabinet had convened a meeting and asked the Governor to dismiss the complaint. The governor took action ignoring it.