Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Minister Alkod Hanumanthappa and Agricultural Marketing Minister S Darshanapur have moved the Karnataka High Court against the Lokayukta report seeking action against them.

The petitions by the two ministers questioned the Karnataka Lokayukta’s report submitted to the Chief Minister on May 11, 2007, seeking action against them for not filing the details of their assets and liabilities in time.
The ministers, who were supposed to file the details of their assets and liabilities of the year 2005 by June 30, 2006, had filed them on September 1, 2006. The Lokayukta had submitted a report to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, in this regard.

The petition had come up before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice S Abdul Nazeer, on Monday, for preliminary hearing. The bench adjourned the matter to Tuesday while seeking Advocate General’s presence during the hearing.

CS’ affidavit not satisfactory
The High Court on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over State Chief Secretary P B Mahishi’s affidavit filed in connection with the case, for which the court had recently issued and recalled a NBW against him. The Court observed that his affidavit had no satisfactory explanation for the inordinate delay of ten months in filing a review petition on behalf of the government, against a court order relating to some lands in Kodigehalli.

Mr Mahishi had filed an affidavit as per the Court’s recent order seeking explanation for non-compliance of a 2006 order in the petitions filed by K Kavitha and some other residents of Balaji Layout, Kodigehalli.

The Court had sought diligent action on part of the government, following the then Chief Secretary’s undertaking to file a review petition against a HC order in the matter.

Justice Ram Mohan Reddy, handling the case, had issued a NBW earlier on July 16 and had subsequently recalled it while seeking an affidavit with detailed explanation.

The affidavit filed on behalf of the Chief Secretary, on Monday, said that Mr Mahishi had taken charge on Dec 31, 2006, while also explaining the path through which the concerned file had moved until the review petition was filed on July 4, 2007.

The Court observed that although an earlier affidavit by Revenue department Under Secretary had stated that delay was due to misplacing of the file at Advocate General’s office, the said office seemed unwilling to put forth an explanation for the delay.

However, following Additional Government Advocate’s request, the Court adjourned the matter to July 30, granting time for “filing a better affidavit detailing explanation for day-to-day delay”.

KHB rapped
The High Court pulled up State Housing Secretary and Karnataka Housing Board Commissioner present before it on Monday, for KHB’s negligent manner of conducting litigations.

Justice N Kumar had summoned Housing Secretary Shameen Banu and KHB Commissioner Narayanaswamy in a case where the KHB officials had failed to produce a document relating to the scheme for which certain lands were acquired by KHB. The documents were said to be untraceable.

The judge observed that negligence of KHB officials in providing relevant papers to the court was adversely affecting the Board’s interest. The petitioning land owners score an advantage due to irresponsible conduct of litigations on behalf of the Board, the judge pointed out while adding that it was strange that many a times petitioners had copies of official documents, but, officers concerned failed to produce them. The judge asked the officers to initiate prompt action against the erring officials and send a strong message against such deeds.