Overview

• The order pauses proceedings at the lower court where charges were pending framing against Siddaramaiah, marking the latest in a series of stays by the High Court.
• His petition was joined with those of Rahul Gandhi, D.K. Shivakumar and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee after each had secured similar interim relief this year.
• The defamation suit arose from Congress’s ‘PayCM’ campaign, which accused the previous BJP government of a “40% commission sarkar” and misappropriating around ₹1,500 crore.
• The BJP’s state unit must now submit a formal response to the consolidated petitions before the trial can advance.
• Legal experts say the repeated stays highlight tensions over the use of criminal defamation laws to police political speech.