Last Thursday, the Karnataka High Court stayed the Congress government’s May 27 order to withdraw 52 criminal cases that came days after the then Siddaramaiah Cabinet decided to halt the prosecution of these cases.On May 28, Siddaramaiah stepped down as the chief minister to make way for D K Shivakumar as part of the Congress’s exercise for the changing of the guard.AdvertisementThe Siddaramaiah government’s decision marked the latest in a series of such moves by successive governments, led by both the Congress and the BJP, to drop criminal cases against individuals and groups that they believed were from their respective support bases.The withdrawal of these cases – largely involving rioting, unlawful assembly and breaking of prohibitory orders – through executive orders has taken place despite growing judicial scrutiny of these decisions in recent years.During its previous 2013-18 tenure, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government dropped a total of 176 cases, mainly those linked to activists of the now outlawed Muslim outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) as well as farmer, Dalit and pro-Kannada bodies.AdvertisementRead | Karnataka’s recent history of CM changes, and their effect on electionsDuring its 2019-2023 regime, the BJP government dropped 385 cases, many of which involved party activists allied to right wing Hindutva outfits like Hindu Jagarana Vedike as well as party legislators, farmer groups and other activists.Since the Congress’s return to power in May 2023, the Siddaramaiah government, in two separate orders issued on October 15, 2024 and May 27, 2026, ordered the withdrawal of altogether 95 cases, registered mainly against Muslims accused in communal incidents as well as activists of pro- Kannada, farmer and Dalit groups.Such “politically motivated” moves have, however, faced increasing curbs imposed by the judiciary.Staying the government’s May 27 order, the high court ruling cited its own May 29, 2025 order, which stated that the prosecution of selective cases cannot be stopped by the state since individual state prosecutors hold the power under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to decide on prosecution of a matter.“In view of the order dated 29.05.2025, the impugned order is stayed till the next date of hearing,” the high court bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha said on July 2 on a plea filed by a right-wing activist Girish Bharadwaj against the government’s move.Siddaramaiah’s final actIn one of its last meetings, on May 21, the Siddaramaiah Cabinet approved a proposal “to withdraw a total of 42 cases listed in Annexure-1 registered in various police stations of the state and pending trial in various courts and to obtain the permission of the Hon’ble High Court to withdraw 10 cases in Annexure-2”.An analysis of the 52 cases by The Indian Express reveals that these included eight cases related to a communal incident that occurred in February-March 2022 under the BJP government in Kalburgi’s Aland, in which many Muslims were booked after communal tensions flared up when right-wing groups like Sri Rama Sena insisted on conducting rituals at a Hindu shrine in the Ladle Mashak Dargah complex. The request for withdrawal of eight cases registered against over 300 Muslims, including many minors, in the Aland case was made to the government by the Aland Dargah’s managing committee.The 52 cases also included 10 linked to the 2016 Bengaluru violence involving pro-Kannada groups in the wake of a Supreme Court order on the Cauvery water dispute and protests over non-Kannada banners; five cases against Dalit groups for protests over alleged insults against B R Ambedkar; 12 linked to farmer protests; and some cases linked to the Covid protocol violations in 2020-2021.The government also decided to move the high court to drop 10 cases slapped against the Kannada rights activist, Vatal Nagaraj, in Bengaluru since 2006.So far, the courts have allowed the closure of only one of the 52 cases, which was related to a 2023 case filed against Kannada language activists from Kannada Rakshana Vedike for tearing banners in English in central Bengaluru.State Home Minister Priyank Kharge has said the government would examine the high court’s order for a legal response on the issue.Judiciary’s curbsOn May 29, 2025, the high court, hearing a PIL filed by Girish Bharadwaj, stayed the Congress government’s October 2024 order to drop 43 cases, some of which were linked to incidents of violence in Hubbali in 2022, when some allegedly derogatory social media posts against Islam inflamed communal passions and led to stone-pelting on a local police station by a crowd, following which the police booked several persons. A Hubbali-based Muslim organisation Anjuman e Islam demanded the withdrawal of the cases against the accused, which was accepted by the government.The other cases the government’s October 2024 order dropped included those against farmer groups and Dalit and Kannada activists.Setting aside the government’s order, the high court ruled that the powers to drop cases are vested with public prosecutors which could not be exercised by the state.A division bench of the high court ruled that “the Government Order in its nature impinges upon the discretion to be exercised by the public prosecutors when it comes to the withdrawal of a case or cases under Section 321 CrPC. It takes away the room for the public prosecutor to apply his mind.”“The Government Order and the decision reflected therein would smack of political nature of exercise of powers. The respondent itself has claimed that the Ministers and officials were part of the meeting which ended up with the impugned order passed by the government. It could be contended therefore that it was a politically taken decision,” the high court said.The government argued that its orders for withdrawal of cases were its “policy decision” not violative of Section 321 of the CrPC. It contended that “power is reserved for the executive government to withdraw criminal cases on broader grounds of public policy, maintenance of law and order, public peace and harmony, and ‘social and political consideration’.”BJP govt’s bid to drop casesOn August 31, 2020, the then BJP government decided to withdraw 62 cases. Hearing a PIL filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties, the high court stayed this order on December 21, 2020. Citing the SC ruling in the Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay vs Union of India case, the court on August 11, 2021, ordered that states cannot drop cases against sitting and former MLAs/MPs without a HC’s clearance.Among the beneficiaries of the BJP government’s move were two party lawmakers – then Mysuru MP Prathap Simha and then Honnali MLA M P Renukacharya – against whom a total of four cases were dropped.In the course of its tenure from July 2019 to April 2023, the BJP government issued seven separate orders to withdraw the prosecution of 385 cases, including 182 cases of communal incidents linked to hate speeches, cow vigilantism, and communal violence, an RTI response by the government to a query by The Indian Express had revealed in 2023. According to their details, a majority of communal incidents where the BJP government opted to withdraw prosecution – on the recommendation of the home minister, clearance of a Cabinet sub-committee, and approval of the state Cabinet – pertained to right-wing activists.As many as 45 of these cases pertained to communal violence allegedly involving right-wing activists in Uttara Kannada district in December 2017 over the death of a Hindu youth Paresh Mesta, which was later found to be an “accidental death” by the CBI.you may likeThe cases included four incidents of cow vigilantism in Chikamagalur, several incidents of violence in Kodagu and Mysuru over celebration of Tipu Jayanti, incidents around festivities like Rama Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Ganesh festival, and protests over inter-religious marriages and conversion.Among the beneficiaries of the BJP dispensation’s withdrawal of cases were Hindu Jagaran Vedike leader Jagadish Karanth, who was accused in four cases of making hate speeches in Dakshina Kannada, Bagalkot, Bengaluru Rural, and Tumkur.As a key Opposition party during 2013-2018, the BJP had accused the ruling Congress of dropping scores of cases against 1600 activists of the PFI and SDPI groups over incidents of unlawful assembly and protests in the state.