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‘Why are you fighting shy of filing affidavit before court of law?’ Karnataka HC to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in land grab case

The Karnataka High Court said the stay in the case will automatically be vacated if the defect in the petition is not cured.

3 min readBengaluruJan 21, 2026 07:53 PM IST

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's petition seeks to quash an FIR registered by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (File Photo)

The Karnataka High Court Wednesday directed spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to cure defects in the petition filed by him seeking to quash an FIR alleging encroachment of public land in Bengaluru; otherwise, it would vacate the interim order passed on January 13 staying further investigation in the case.

As per legal practice, along with a writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, read with Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhitha (BNSS), the petitioners are to file an affidavit deposing that the contents of the petition are true.

Additional State Public Prosecutor B A Belliappa informed the court that the affidavit is not sworn by him (Ravi Shankar), it is filed by one Subaramanya, a devotee of an ashram. Therefore, there is a threshold bar, and this petition has to go. He also submitted that, as a result, he was precluded from filing his statement of objection to the petition.

Advocate P Prasanna Kumar, appearing for Ravi Shankar, submitted, “I could not get the affidavit of the petitioner as he (Ravi Shankar) at the time of filing the petition was not available.”

A single-judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna observed, “Maybe technical but it is necessary. It is a defective petition. Why is he (Ravi Shankar) fighting shy from (of) filing an affidavit before the court of law?”

The bench also mentioned an order passed by it in June 2022, wherein it held that a power of attorney holder of the accused cannot maintain a petition under Articles 226 or 227 of the Constitution, read with Section 482 CrPC or a Criminal Petition under Section 482 CrPC.

Kumar assured the court that the defect would be cured by Friday and the petition would be taken up for hearing on the same day.

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Allowing the same, the court in its order noted, “The petitioner is an accused, and the affidavit is sworn by the devotee of the Ashram. This is, on the face of it, cannot be countenanced. Time is granted up to 10.30 am of January 23, to rectify the aforesaid defect in the writ petition by doing the needful, failing which the interim order would be automatically vacated. Subject to the aforesaid, the interim order stands extended till the next date. List on January 23.”

The petition was filed seeking to quash the FIR registered by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, under Section 192A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964.