The Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, has got temporary relief from facing suspension and contempt of court proceedings. On Monday, a Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka requested a single judge not to proceed till July 10 on petitions that questioned the actions of two department officials in demolishing certain structures without following procedure.
The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed the interim order of requesting the single judge while hearing an appeal filed by the State government. The government had questioned the June 14 order of the single judge that had directed the Principal Secretary to place an Assistant Commissioner and tahsildar of Bengaluru South sub-division under suspension for showing disrespect to the rule of law.
Also, the single judge on July 1 had directed the Principal Secretary to show cause by July 3 why he should not be suspended and a contempt of court proceedings not be initiated against him for wilfully disobeying the court’s June 14 directions.
The Assistant Commissioner on May 26 passed orders for taking possession of certain lands at Kothanur in Bengaluru South by claiming that those lands were under unauthorised occupation.
The Assistant Commissioner with the tahsildar had also demolished several structures on the land without providing an opportunity to the petitioners to get a remedy under law to appeal against the order passed by the Assistant Commissioner.
