Road repair: HC adjourns plea till conclusion of LS polls

 The High Court of Karnataka on Monday adjourned till the completion of Lok Sabha elections the hearing on a contempt petition pertaining to repair of roads in City. The matter was deferred after the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the repair works were being taken up at a time when the polls were approaching.

City-based advocate K N Subba Reddy had filed a public interest litigation in 2005 seeking directions to fill the potholes in the City. The Court had constituted a committee headed by Capt (Retd) Raja Rao, a retired chief engineer of Water Resources Department,to look into the issue. The panel submitted five reports with 112 recommendations. The matter was disposed of in February 2012 after the Palike undertook before the Court to act on 107 recommendations, in February 2012.

However, the petitioner had filed a contempt petition stating that the roads were in bad shape and no steps had been taken to fill the potholes.

Appointment stayed

The High Court has stayed the appointment of the special counsel in a petition against Vallabha Neni, the co-accused in the case pertaining to rape allegations against controversial godman Nithyananda.

Aarthi, non-resident Indian who stays in the United States, had accused Nithyananda of raping her. The State government had appointed Govindan as a special counsel in the matter, which was challenged by Neni, the accused no.3.

 Justice Abdul Nazeer passed the order granting stay on appointment of the special counsel.