Overview

• The Karnataka High Court stayed trial court proceedings against Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in a BJP criminal defamation case.
• Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar presided over the bench that granted interim relief and issued notice to the BJP state unit.
• The defamation suit targets Congress’s May 2023 full-page ‘corruption rate card’ advertisements alleging that the BJP government charged fixed commissions and misappropriated ₹1.5 lakh crore.
• Rahul Gandhi received similar interim protection in January when the High Court paused trial proceedings against him in the same case.
• The BJP contended that the Congress’s use of the “trouble engine sarkaar” parody and rate-card claims was intended to undermine its electoral image during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.