The High Court on Thursday scheduled a spot inspection of some lands in Kumaraswamy Range, Sandoor, Bellary district, in whose respect a petition against the State Government recommendations for grant of mining lease is before it.

Justice D V Shailendra Kumar, hearing a writ petition by M/s MSPL Limited, Hospet, filed in 2005, proposed to do a personal spot inspection of the areas concerned, on Aug 4, 2007.

The judge directed the concerned department officers to coordinate with HC Registrar in respect of the visit.
The judge also directed the Revenue, Forest and Mining department Secretaries to file affidavits regarding the position of the concerned lands by August 17, 2007, as sought by it, earlier. The petitioner, a mining company which had applied for grant of mining lease in the lands concerned, has challenged a State Government letter recommending grant of mining lease in favour of two other companies, Jindal Steels Limited and Kalyani Steels Limited.

Proceedings dropped
The High Court on Thursday dropped a civil contempt proceedings initiated against a city civil judge, while imposing Rs 5,000 costs on the petitioner for wrongly implicating the judge.

A civil contempt complaint by Smt Rukmini had sought contempt action against Mr KB Changappa, the presiding judge of 28th Additional City Civil Judge(ACCJ)’s court in Mayo Hall, Bangalore and some other private respondents for acting against a High Court order.

She had pointed out that the civil court’s orders dated June 19, 2004 and April 1, 2006 concerning holding of sale of some lands in a litigation as to property rights, had ignored the High Court order modifying the decree.
The counsel representing Mr Changappa, submitted that Mr Changappa had assumed the concerned office of 28th ACCJ, only on Aug 30, 2006 and was unrelated to the orders alleged to be in violation of the High Court order.

The Bench comprising Justice SR Bannurmath and Justice AS Pachhapure  dropped the contempt proceedings against Mr Changappa.

It also imposed costs of Rs 5,000 on the petitioner while calling for records with regard to the contempt allegations made against the remaining respondents.

MLA murder case
The Court has dismissed a criminal petition filed by some of the accused in MLA Vasanth Asnotikar’s shoot out case, who had sought a stay of the trial in the case.

The petitioners had sought a stay of the proceedings pending before Karwar sessions judge while challenging an order that had permitted recalling of witnesses by the prosecution.

Vini Vinc
The Court has adjourned the hearing of the bail petitions filed by Vini Vinc president K N Srinivasa Shastry and vice-president G Lokesh to Monday.

During the hearing, the Court opined that the proposal of refunding the depositors’ money did not seem feasible for implementation and the petitions may be heard on merits of the case. However, owing to the advocates’ request for time, the matter was adjourned to Monday.