The High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of the lottery operators’ appeal against a single judge order upholding the lottery ban, to June 28.

The appeals filed by Himachal Pradesh State Lotteries Department and some lottery distributors and agents, are before a Division Bench comprising Justices S R Bannurmath and Jawad Rahim, for final hearing.

The appellants have challenged the recent single-judge order validating the State Government notification banning the operation of lotteries in the State while declaring it a “lottery-free zone.’’

Fiat to govt

The Division Bench directed the State Government to consider representations of some farmers of Gadag district, seeking refund of electricity bills paid by them, in the light of a waiver declared by the Government. The Bench was disposing of a PIL filed by Vijaykumar Sarj Desai and 15 others of Rona taluk.

The petitioners had stated that the Government, by a notification, had spared several who defaulted on payment of electricity bills due on irrigation pumpsets, up to March 31, 2003.

But, it had ignored their repeated representations, seeking refund of the bills they had promptly paid for the said period, they said.

DD plea on transfer

The court has admitted a Prasar Bharati petition challenging the CAT’s order that set aside the transfer of Bangalore DD director Mahesh Joshi to the Chennai DD Kendra.

Additional Solicitor-General V T Gopalan, arguing on behalf of the Prasar Bharati, contended that the transfer was purely an administrative exercise and denied Joshi’s allegations of mala fide made before the CAT. Joshi had alleged that the transfer was effected under the influence of a letter written by MP, R L Jalappa.

SI to pay up

Justice K L Manjunath has directed an SI to pay Rs 3,000 as litigation costs to a woman against whom he had issued an ‘eviction notice.’ Maremma had cl-aimed in her petition that she owned a 30x40 site at Hosaningapura in Koppal, in respect of which one Jagadeesh had obtained a decree of ownership from a civil court.

She had then filed an appeal against the decree but, on Feb 23, 2007, the Munirabad SI issued a notice instructing her to vacate the property “within 24 hours”. She contended that he had no jurisdiction in the matter as it was sub judice.