KG Halli-DJ Halli violence case: Karnataka HC dismisses plea of 14 accused persons

The High Court of Karnataka has refused to exercise its power under the writ jurisdiction to interfere with the order of a special court, which had declined to discharge 14 accused persons in the 2020 KG Halli-DJ Halli violence case, from the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Not rarest of rare

The court noted that the case against the 14 accused persons “is not a rarest of rare case” to exercise its power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India when the accused have a statutory right to appeal under the provisions of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act against the special court’s order of refusing to discharge them from the provisions of the UAP Act.

A division bench comprising Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar and Justice K.S. Hemalekha passed the order while dismissing a writ petition filed by Syed Abbas and 13 others.

“The petitioners have not made out a case for rarest of rare case for this court to interfere under Article 226 of the Constitution, and hence, the writ petition is not maintainable against an order rejecting a discharge application as the rejection of discharge application is classified as not an interlocutory order but an intermediate order, which affects the rights of the accused to avoid trial, and hence challengeable by way of an appeal under Section 21(1) of the NIA Act,” the Bench said.

Though the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 can invoked in exceptional circumstances when there is lack of jurisdiction, violation of fundamental rights, no evidence at all or grave miscarriage of justice despite having alternative remedies, the Bench said that is no material for the High Court to invoke its power Article 226 in the present case.

Published - May 26, 2025 10:34 pm IST