High Court orders impleading CM

The Director had filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the directions from the Chief Minister’s office asking him to go on long leave and appointing Director of Health and Family Welfare Department Usha Wasunkar in his place.

The petitioner alleged that the Chief Minister was not a member of the Hospital’s governing council and neither the Chief Minister nor his Principal Secretary had authority to appoint any officer to the Director’s post. He argued that the note sent was beyond their jurisdiction as the Institute was an autonomous body. The petitioner said that he was not given a fair hearing or reasonable opportunity to respond.
Justice Ram Mohan Reddy while directing the the petitioner to implead chief minister as a respondent, stayed the operation of the council’s resolution asking the petitioner to proceed on leave. It also ordered notices to  Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department.

Details sought

The High Court issued summons to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner to give information about a civic amenity (CA) site in Okalipuram.

J Hemachandra and others had filed a petition stating that that the BBMP has allotted a civic amenity site at Lakshman Rao park in Okalipuram to City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) for the construction of a public park. The site, however, had been encroached and about 33 unauthorised dwellings had come up in the area. In July, 1997, the High Court had instructed the BBMP to remove the encroachments, but the matter remained unresolved. They have appealed to the Court to direct the BBMP to take steps to clear the encroachment. 

A division bench headed by Justice D V Shylendra Kumar observed taht the affidavits were not revealing facts. The hearing is adjourned to Wednesday.