‘BEML must produce permits to disprove charges'

BEML Ltd., a public sector undertaking, will have to produce Mineral Dispatch Permits (MDPs) before the Karnataka High Court to prove otherwise the allegation that it had illegally exported iron ore worth Rs. 118 crore from Karnataka during 2007-08.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed an order in this regard after State government counsel R.G. Kolle submitted to the Bench that “copies of the MDPs pertaining to the subject shipment should also be produced so that any doubt that the exported iron ore was illegally sourced may be put to rest.”

Pointing out that it would be difficult for transportation of iron ore without MDPs, Mr. Kolle said production of MDPs and ascertaining its genuineness would ascertain the source of iron ore.

The Bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition by K. Subramanyam Sastry, a shareholder of BEML, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the illegal export of iron ore allegedly by BEML and assets of its Chairman and Managing Director V.R.S. Natarajan.

The petitioner pointed out that the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) in its 2009 report pertaining to BEML had stated that “…the statutory auditors had detected sales of Rs. 425 crore shown as receivable from customers where even basic invoices were also not raised on customers… and Rs. 118 crore of sale of iron ore shown as exported without evidencing any document in support of export….

Taken to task

While hearing another case, the Bench pulled up the government for not giving permission for appointment of teachers to an aided minority school in Bellary even after the school management made repeated requests for eight years.

“When a teacher retires, will you appoint a ghost [in that place] or what? You [government] do nothing in these aided schools and interfere in [the functioning of] unaided schools. This is a negative approach of the Education Department. Is education in Karnataka lowest priority? You are directly responsible for falling standards. This is nothing but appalling. Every year some teachers retire. If people are retiring, new people have to come…. We will first call the Secretary and then the Minister if nothing comes from the government by Friday,” the Bench orally observed while adjourning the hearing.

The Bench was responding to the submission made by government advocate that there was a freeze on any appointments in terms of an order in September 2003 as part of austerity measures.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the petitioners — parents of students studying in Zakir Hussein Girls Primary School — run by Bellary Education Society, pointed out that already eight teachers had retired and one more teacher was due for retirement in a few months.

Secretary summoned

The Bench directed the Secretary, Women and Child Development, to personally appear in court in connection with a PIL petition by Campaign Against Child Labour which pointed out anomalies in the monthly remuneration of the Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and its Secretary and other employees.

It was pointed out in the petition that the Chairperson gets a monthly remuneration of Rs. 3,500 whereas Group D employees working in the Commission get payment in the range of Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 7.275, while the Secretary, an IAS officer, draws about Rs. 58,000 a month. The court in June last year had asked the government to set right the anomalies.