High Court directs engineering college to declare student's result

The High Court on Wednesday directed the Kammavari Sangha Institute of Technology’ (KSIT), Bangalore, to declare a student’s examination results which were withheld on the court directions.

The petitioner, Shreya K S, from Jayanagar and sixth-semester student of electronics and communications, was denied permission to write the exam because she skipped college for over three months after meeting with an accident.

Justice A S Bopanna had earlier directed the college to allow her to write the examination but withhold her results until the petition was adjudicated.

The student submitted that the accident had made her immobile. She even submitted the relevant medical certificate. The college initially assured to allow her to take the exam if she cleared an oral test but made a U-turn later on, her counsel, K V Mohan Kumar, told the court.

The court directed the college to allow the student to continue her studies. It also directed the student to submit original medical certificates to the college.

As per the Visvesvaraya Technological University rules, a student must have 75 per cent of attendance to appear for exams, but in special circumstances like these, the lack of attendance can be considered, the bench observed.

During the hearing, the bench orally suggested to the university not to be stringent with the rules in rare cases. “A person affected by Chikungunya and other diseases requires three months of bed rest. Under such circumstances, you need to amend the guidelines and in rarest cases should not insist on 75 per cent attendance,” Justice Bopanna remarked orally.

JB Layout denotification

The High Court on Wednesday ordered that notices be issued to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the State government on an appeal against the withdrawal of denotification of three acres of land in Valgerahalli acquired for Jnanabharathi Layout.

Hearing an appeal by Munikrishna and others, a division bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ashok Hinchigeri gave the order. The government had acquired the land in survey Nos 59/4, 59/11, 59/17 and 59/18 and denotified  the same on October 6, 2010.

But it withdrew the denotification order on November 23, 2012.

Increase in ad tariff

The High Court on Wednesday quashed the BBMP’s demand notice which sought to increase the tariff for displaying advertisement hoardings in the City.

Hearing a petition by advertising firm, Hambala Advertising Agency, against the new tariff, Justice Dilip Bhosale directed the BBMP to continue with the existing tariff of Rs 120 per square meter until the State government approved the increased tariff of Rs 260 per square meter.

The BBMP had sent a proposal on tariff revision to the government. Even as the matter was pending before the government, it sent a demand notice to the firm in January 2014, seeking increase in fees as per the revised rates.

The firm moved the High Court, contending that the increase in tariff when the matter was still being considered by the government was in violation of KMC Act and should be quashed.