The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday directed the Principal Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (RDPR) to personally appear before it on December 13 with relevant documents and the affidavit showing action initiated against the members of Belma Gram Panchayat in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district who have illegally withheld grant of licence to a resident of the panchayat.
Justice Vineet Kothari passed the interim order on a petition filed by one Hemanth Shetty, whose application for reconstruction of a house was rejected by the panchayat in July 2017 through a resolution by the elected body.
While the petitioner obtained sanction from Mangaluru Urban Development Authority to reconstruct the house on a site, which was allotted by the government to his father back in 1983, the panchayat in its passed resolution claimed that licence cannot be granted as the site allotted in 1983 was cancelled in 1984. The elected body of the panchayat had not obeyed the no objection given by other authorities for the grant of licence to the petitioner.
Following the resolution, the government in January issued notices to members asking why they should not be removed from their post for alleged misconduct in passing the resolution against grant of licence. However, they produced a copy of the government order of 1984 cancelling the site allotted to petitioner’s father. Later, the government sought reports from the CEO of DK Zilla Panchayat and Deputy Commissioner, DK. Before the High Court, the government claimed that records of 1984 pertaining to the cancellation of the allotment of the site to petitioner’s father were destroyed by the authorities concerned. However, there was no corroborative material produced to show that site allotment was cancelled.
