SC dispenses with personal presence of top K'taka officer

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dispensed with personal appearance of Karnataka's revenue secretary in a land dispute involving the University of Mysore, in view of ongoing Assembly session.

A bench of Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer allowed a plea for exemption moved by Additional Advocate General Devdutt Kamat on behalf of Dr E V Ramareddy, Principal Secretary, revenue department.

In his application, Reddy stated, "In view of the ongoing Budget session of the state legislature, he is unable to present himself before the court." However, other officers - D Randeep, deputy commissioner, Mysuru and tahsildar T Ramesh Babu were directed to be present in the court along with the original records.

The court had on February 12 taken exception to the stand government's failure to assist it in deciding a civil appeal filed by the varsity. It had then directed for presence of the top officer on February 20.

"We are not happy with the attitude of the State of Karnataka in not assisting this court properly, knowing specifically that the matter is coming up for hearing."

"The State has not produced any original record before this court, when the basis of the appeal is that the respondents are claiming valuable land of the University by fraud and forged documents," the bench had then said. On Tuesday, the law officer cited the reasons for inability of the officer to be present. The court then went ahead to conclude the hearing and reserved its judgement.