Rebuild missing official records, High Court tells government

The High Court, on Monday, directed the principal secretaries of Departments of Revenue, Urban Development, Forest, Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner and BBMP Commissioner to rebuild those official records which have either gone missing or have been destroyed.

Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh, passing an order, directed the heads of government departments to conduct a confidential survey within the departments to rebuild the missing official records.

Appearing before the court, Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner V Ponnuraj, BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana, principal secretaries of Departments of Urban Development and Forests made their submissions based on the court's direction to scan and digitise all official records.

They submitted that nearly 80 to 100 per cent of government records were digitised in most of the districts in the State. The bench, in its order, said the lease contracts are being blatantly violated in different departments and directed the heads of department to prepare a comprehensive report on lease records at town and panchayat levels, revenue land lease by local bodies, lease contracts issued by BBMP and other municipal corporations and municipalities.

Track record

Granting three months time to submit the report by September 3, the bench also directed the heads of departments to keep track of all official records and ensure scanned copies are available online for easy accessibility to the public to avoid any manipulation.

The bench passed the order hearing a petition filed by M Lingappa in 2003, who had challenged Land Tribunal’s order which had rejected his request to grant him certified copies of his occupancy rights certificate. A single bench which had heard his petition earlier had ordered issual of notices to the government in 2008. The court is monitoring the case records following large scale encroachments reported in A T Ramaswamy committee report.

Handbook released

Former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah said advocates need to understand the socio-economic conditions of the State and its citizens and work accordingly.

Releasing a handbook on Civil & Criminal Advocacy authored by Justice B N Krishnan here on Monday, Justice Venkatachaliah said: “When I was practising as an advocate, only four of my colleagues used to drive their cars to the court, now each advocate has at least four cars,” he added.

Justice Venkatachaliah advised the advocates not to turn enemies of the State and society.