The State government on Monday faced embarrassment as the Karnataka High Court declared that the government was “not coming out with the truth” and “ attempting to keep out certain materials from the court” on the manner of allowing the marriage of Nikhil K., son of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, during lockdown.
A special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the order while hearing through video conference PIL petitions on issues owing to lockdown.
The court made these observations in its order as the government in its written statement claimed that no application was filed for vehicle passes for the marriage nor passes were issued but during argument claimed that many guests, who attended the marriage held on April 17, were guarded with Y or Z category security and hence did not not require passes.
Another letter
Also, the government on May 12 claimed that the Ramanagaram district Deputy Commissioner ought to have specified the number of guests permitted for the marriage but had defended the DC saying that Ministry of Home Affairs as on April 17 had not fixed any upper limit for guests to be allowed for a marriage ceremony during lockdown. The government had given this explanation in response to the court’s May 5 query as to why the DC had not limited the number of guests in the permission granted.
Interestingly, the government on Monday claimed that Mr. Kumaraswamy, who had filed an application on April 15 seeking permission for marriage, had submitted second application, on the request made by the DC on the same day, specifying that around 100 members of the family would attend the marriage. The government produced copies of both the letters.
However, the Bench orally termed the second letter as “manufactured” and appears to have been “ inserted with anti-date” as the government had not whispered about this letter during earlier hearings.
“To put it mildly, its shocking,” the Bench said in its order on government’s claim of existence of second letter. “State should not fabricate documents. Cover up is going on. State should accept the mistake and admit that many persons, without passes, from different districts attended the marriage held in Ramanagaram district, which was in green zone then,” the Bench orally observed.
‘Some compulsions’
The Bench also orally observed that “the State government had some compulsion and wanted to defend the illegalities,” while asking if the DC would request a common man to give a second letter.
On the government’s claim on security cover for guests, the Bench observed that neither the government was prepared to make an enquiry on whether all those who attended had such security cover nor ascertain the fact by holding an enquiry.
“...the government was not willing to accept the errors committed by its officers,” the Bench said while closing the issue as marriage was already held and it wanted to concentrate on issues of migrants and needy persons.
