HC rejects man's plea to heli-drop petals on new house

 The High Court of Karnataka has refused permission to a man to heli-drop petals on his residence during housewarming.

Justice A S Bopanna noted on Monday that entertaining the petition filed by M Muniraju would set a bad precedent and send a wrong message to society. Permission to use the helicopter in a densely populated area cannot be granted, the judge ruled.

Muniraju had urged the court to direct the Bengaluru police commissioner to allow him to use a helicopter to shower petals on his house on February 9. He first approached the police commissioner who rejected his application. He then moved the court, arguing that police had given permission to his neighbour. He sought permission by citing Article 14 of the Constitution of India (equality before law).

The government counsel submitted to the court that permission for using the helicopter was rejected on the grounds that hutments in the vicinity of Muniraju’s house could get damaged.

Sub-registrar’s transfer

The High Court of Karnataka on Monday directed the state government not to appoint anyone to the post of sub-registrar, Dasanapura, Bengaluru North taluk. A division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and A N Venugopala Gowda passed the order on a petition filed by S Dinesh, the incumbent sub-registrar of Dasanapura, who moved the court against his transfer.

The state government had transferred Lalitha Amruthesh, Superintendent, District Registrar Office, Bengaluru Rural district, to Dinesh’s post and the latter to her position. Dinesh questioned the transfer and suggested that Lalitha’s transfer was “politically motivated”. Lalitha levelled the same accusation at him.

Hearing Dinesh’s petition, the court asked Advocate General (AG) Madhusudhan R Naik to spell out the government’s stand on clause 12 of the Guidelines for Transfer Policy, which prohibits transfer of government servants under political pressure. The bench also instructed the government not to make such postings. The judges noted that thousands of transfer-related petitions are pending before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal. If the government functions this way, a separate tribunal may be required to handle transfer-related disputes, they said. The AG sought more time to clarify the government stand.