The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A.T. Ramaswamy report: State asked to expunge remarks against judiciary

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Tuesday, Mar 03, 2009
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A.T. Ramaswamy report: State asked to expunge remarks against judiciary

Staff Reporter

Court says panel exceeded its brief in making allegations against judiciary
Remarks against the judiciary termed as unwarranted

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Monday expressed deep anguish at certain remarks and statement made against the judiciary in the A.T. Ramaswamy report on encroachment of government lands in and around Bangalore and suggested to the Government to expunge the remarks.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice. P.D. Dinakaran and Justice K.L. Manjunath was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction to the State to implement the report when it made the statement.

Expressing anguish at the manner in which some statements were made at judges of the High Court and Supreme Court and also the judiciary, the Bench said it would deal strictly and according to the law with irregularities, if any, in the Judicial Employee House Building Cooperative Society, but that the committee had exceeded its brief in making allegations against the judiciary.

It observed that the committee had mainly been constituted to look into encroachment of government lands in and around Bangalore.

How could it make such sweeping statements against the judiciary when it had no such brief.

It said such remarks/statements were per se defamatory and took to task the petitioner S. Vasudeva, an advocate of Bangalore, for filing the report even before it was placed before the Government.

Earlier, Additional Advocate-General Ashok Harnahalli submitted that the committee was constituted as a joint Legislature panel to look into complaints of large-scale encroachment of government lands in and around Bangalore. He said all the legislators had copies of the report and urged the court to ensure that the public did not access it from the High Court.

The Bench then sought to know from the petitioner the source of the document and asked him to file an affidavit in the regard.

It termed the remarks against the judiciary as unwarranted and sought to know the terms of reference of the committee and also how it arrived at the findings.

The Bench asked the Chief Secretary to file his response to the queries raised by adjourned further hearing of the case to March 11.

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