The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani and two others, ruling that an unexplained delay of 11 years in lodging the complaint rendered the case an abuse of the legal process.
Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that the allegations revolved around an incident said to have taken place in 2007, but the complainants approached the court only in 2018 without offering any convincing explanation for the prolonged delay.
Describing the case as an example of the misuse of the SC/ST Act, the Court noted that although the complaint narrated events spanning several years, the alleged incident itself remained confined to 2007.
The November 4 ruling in Baba Kalyani v. Rajendran also extended relief to businessman Ashok Kheny and D Ravishankar, who were named as accused in the proceedings.
Kalyani, whose full name is Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani, heads the Pune-based Kalyani Group and serves as Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge. He is also associated with Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICEL), the company responsible for developing the NICE road project in Bengaluru. Kalyani personally holds a 5 per cent stake in the company, while BF Utilities, a Kalyani Group entity, owns another 75 per cent.
The dispute originated from allegations made by S Rajendran, S Meganathan and S Sampath, who claimed that their family land in Kodigehalli village had been unlawfully taken over for the NICE project.
According to the complainants, their father had received a two-acre land grant from the Karnataka government. They alleged that the land was subsequently acquired using forged documents and that a building belonging to their educational society was demolished in March 2007.
They further accused the respondents of trespassing, damaging property and subjecting them to caste-based abuses.
Despite the alleged incident taking place in 2007, the complainants initiated proceedings before a special court only in 2018, invoking provisions of the SC/ST Act and other criminal offences.
The police later submitted a closure report. However, in February 2025, the special court directed further investigation into the allegations.
Challenging the continuation of the proceedings, Kalyani, Kheny and Ravishankar approached the High Court, arguing that the complaint was hopelessly delayed and failed to disclose the necessary ingredients of the alleged offences.
The complainants, on the other hand, maintained that delay by itself could not be a ground to terminate proceedings, particularly when allegations of land fraud and caste-based harassment were involved.
The High Court was unconvinced by their explanation.
Justice Nagaprasanna questioned why the complainants had remained silent for more than a decade if the alleged offences had occurred in March 2007.
The Court observed that the complaint contained several embellishments but offered no satisfactory account of the 11-year gap between the alleged incident and the initiation of criminal action.
It further held that an unexplained and deliberate delay could justify interference by the High Court where allowing the proceedings to continue would amount to an abuse of the process of law.
The judge concluded that even if the allegations were accepted at face value, they would not sustain the criminal proceedings in the circumstances of the case, particularly given the extraordinary delay in bringing the complaint.
Accordingly, the High Court quashed the criminal case against all three accused.
Senior Advocate Prabhuling K Navadgi, instructed by advocate SB Mathapati, appeared for the petitioners.
Advocates Prabhugoud B Tumbigi and Syed Khaleel Pasha represented the private respondents, while High Court Government Pleader Waheeda MM appeared for the Karnataka government.