In a relief to Power Minister KJ George, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed the criminal case against him and two officials on a complaint filed by a BJP leader alleging a series of illegalities and corruption in the process of awarding a tender to a private company to supply smart meters at exorbitant cost.
Justice MI Arun passed the order while allowing separate petitions filed by Mr. George, Mahantesh Bilagi, then Managing Director (MD) of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) and currently MD of Karnataka Minerals Corporation Ltd., and Ramesh HJ, Technical Director of Bescom.
The petitioners have challenged the legality of the order passed on July 23 by the Special Criminal Court against former and present MPs and MLAs directing the Superintendent of Police (SP), Lokayukta to submit a report on the complaint filed by BJP legislators CN Ashwath Narayan, SR Vishherajath Muni and D.
“No Crime”
“The selection procedure is entered in favor of the successful bidder, no criminal activity can be attributed to him during the awarding of the contract,” said the court.
“The manner of announcing the tender and the terms of the contract are listed as a violation of the KTPP Act at most, but certainly no criminal activity can be attributed to the petitioners.” the high court observed.
‘May be PIL’
However, the court clarified that allegations of violation of the provisions of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 1999 (KTPP Act) or other improper manner of tendering and awarding the contract may lead to civil action for the affected parties who wanted to bid for the contract or may also be a public interest litigation.
The High Court, while hearing the appeal, pointed out that “it is not the appellants’ case that the appellants took money at the time of awarding the contract to the successful tenderer. But it is their (the appellants’) case that the entire tender process was designed to favor the successful tenderer…which is a shell and before Mr. George so as to enrich himself unjustly”.
The High Court pointed out that no one was illegally excluded from the tender… “and the selection of bidders was done in a transparent manner and no favor was shown to the successful bidder”, Rajashree Electricals Pvt. Ltd., (REPL), Davangere.
The court stated that it is not the case of the applicants that after the finalization of the terms of the tender documents, when the contract was awarded to the successful bidder, the terms of the tender documents were changed or violated in favor of the successful bidder. In fact, Bescom subsequently negotiated terms more favorable to Bescom with the successful bidder.
“…after the tender was awarded to the successful tenderer there was an act and no further advantage was given to the successful tenderer. Any changes that took place are for the benefit of the state or as a natural consequence of business transactions for which no criminal activity can be attributed to the accused,” the high court said.
Published – 02 Dec 2025 19:48 IST
