HC stays KAT's order in illegal mining case

The high court on Thursday stayed the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal's order (KAT) that had quashed a departmental inquiry against officials, which included Manjunath R Ballari, Under Secretary to the government, in an illegal mining case.

A division bench comprising Justice H G Ramesh and Justice B Sreenivas Gowda passed the order staying the KAT's order dated April 19, 2017, while hearing a petition filed by the state government.

According to the government, the Tribunal did not consider the fact that the inquiry was ordered based on the Lokayukta report.

In 2013, the government had initiated a departmental inquiry against 617 officials whose names were found in the pen drive of 'Karapudi' Mahesh, one of the accused in the Ballari illegal mining case, after the then Lokayukta Justice N Santhosh Hegde submitted the report on the issue.