Karnataka High Court Quashes SC/ST Act Complaint Against Bharat Forge Chairman Over 11-Year Delay

The Karnataka High Court has quashed a private complaint under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bharat Forge Chairman Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani and two others in a land dispute tied to the NICE road project in Bengaluru. Justice M. Nagaprasanna allowed Criminal Petition No. 4657 of 2025 and the connected Writ Petition No. 7439 of 2020 in Baba Kalyani Vs Rajendran by order dated November 4. Relief went to businessman Ashok Kheny and D. Ravisankar, named alongside Kalyani in the same proceedings.

Complaint traced to 2007 land claim

S. Rajendran, S. Meganathan and S. Sampath filed the private complaint before the special court in 2018. They alleged illegal entry into their land, damage to property and caste-based abuse. According to them, their father had been granted two acres in Kodigehalli village by the Karnataka government. They said the land was taken over for the NICE project on forged records and a building of their educational society was demolished in March 2007. Offences under the SC/ST Act and other Indian Penal Code offences were alleged on that basis. Police filed a closure report, but the special court ordered further investigation in February 2025.

Kalyani, Kheny and Ravisankar sought quashing of FIR in High Court proceedings, saying the 11-year delay was unexplained and the special court had not tested if the allegations disclosed an offence. The complainants opposed the pleas, arguing delay alone could not defeat allegations of land fraud and caste-based abuse.

Court found delay unexplained

The bench said the narration ran from 2007 to 2018, yet the only incident cited was from 2007. "This forms a classic illustration as to the misuse and abuse of the provisions of the Act. The narration in the complaint begins in the year 2007 and ends in 2018, but the incident remains only of 2007," the order said. It asked why the complainants waited from 2007 to 2018 to start criminal proceedings. "If everything has happened in the year 2007 why did the respondents wait to register the crime for 11 long years remains completely unexplained, even in the complaint. Therefore, the complaint is full of embellishments," the order said.

Deliberate and unexplained delay could justify quashing where the facts pointed to abuse of process, the bench held. It relied on Supreme Court rulings that inordinate delay can itself support quashing under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and general criminal law. "Even if the contents of the complaint are taken as true, it would not make out an offence, for it being marred by delay," the judge ruled.

The order records Kalyani as Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge and head of the Pune-based Kalyani Group. He was shown as a shareholder and former director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd, the company behind the NICE road project, holding five per cent directly while group entity BF Utilities holds another 75 per cent. Kheny was described as being associated with the same company.

Senior Advocate Prabhuling K. Navadgi, instructed by advocate S.B. Mathapati, appeared for the petitioners. Advocates Prabhugoud B. Tumbigi and Syed Khaleel Pasha represented the private respondents in the respective petitions, while Government Pleader Waheeda M.M. appeared for the State of Karnataka. With the latest judgment on quashing of FIR, the private complaint and the further investigation ordered by the special court stand closed against the three accused.