People don't know where to file graft cases, says HC

The State government on Monday informed the High Court that nearly 1,640 cases that were before the Lokayukta would not be transferred to the newly formed Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), till the latter is functional in a full-fledged form.

Justice A N Venugopala Gowda questioned the government as to how they were planning to deal with these cases as the police power to the Lokayukta police wing had also been curbed by the government.

“You are neither here, nor there. The general public do not know where to go and register their complaints against the corrupt.”

The bench observed that the government showed urgency when the PIL was filed challenging the formation of ACB. But it sought time to file objections after the division bench granted stay on transfer of cases from Lokayukta to ACB. Justice Gowda directed the government to submit details about the number of complaints that have been registered with the ACB in the next hearing on April 25.

Land encroachment

The government submitted to the High Court that nearly 2,54,248 acres of government land which was encroached had been recovered by the Revenue department. The status report says that there are a total 64,26,010 acres of government land, of which 13,05,878 acres are encroached. Of the total encroached land, 8,36,219 acres is under litigation in various courts. The net encroachment to be recovered is around 4,69,659 acres of land, of which 2,54,248 acres has already been recovered. A total of 2,15,411 acres of land are pending recovery. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath directed the government to submit the status report in the next hearing on October 3.

Plea against reservation

A petition has been filed before the High Court by 13 JD(S) members, questioning the reservation given to the Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the post of chairperson in the Hassan Zilla Panchayat. The members have contended that the state government had intentionally allotted the post for STs to deprive JD(S) the opportunity to have its member as the chairperson. The petitioners have said that JD(S) does not have any ST member who has won the election.