The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the Chief Minister to take a decision expeditiously on an application filed by a landowner seeking sanction to prosecute Vaman Acharya, Chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer passed the order while disposing of the petition filed by G. Nanjappa, who owns land at Kalinganahalli, near the Shimsa, in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district.
The petitioner had complained that the Chief Minister and Chief Secretary had not acted on his application, submitted in August 2013, but had merely referred it to the Secretary, Forests, Ecology and Environment Department, for appropriate action.
Though the court did not fix any time frame for the Chief Minister to take a decision on the petitioner’s plea, it said the competent authority should decide on the plea “expeditiously”.
The petitioner claimed that Dr. Acharya had granted consent for the establishment of a sugar factory without visiting the site.
Though the consent for establishment (CFE) issued for the company indicates that the nod was given after a personal visit to the site by the Chairman on October 27, 2012, the petitioner claimed the work diary of the Chairman shows he did not travel beyond Bangalore on October 27 as he had travelled around 69 km within Bangalore city.
Tenure policy for IPSThe High Court on Tuesday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a public interest litigation petition, which questioned the government’s decision to “defer” issuance of notification on minimum tenure policy for Indian Police Service (IPS) officers.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the order. The petitioner pointed out that the Union government, acting on directions given by the Supreme Court, with effect from February 28, 2014 amended All India Service Rules fixing two years as minimum tenure in a post for officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Forest Service (IFS) and the IPS.
Though a State government is bound to implement these rules, the petitioner pointed out that the Karnataka government issued a notification on January 31, 2014 fixing two-year tenure for IAS and IFS officers, but did not implement the rules for IPS.
Claiming that the government not only violated the apex court’s order, but also undermined the superintendence of the Centre, the petitioner alleged that the government wanted to transfer police officers at its political will during election period.
