The Karnataka High Court on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking a direction for publication of the report of the one-man judicial inquiry commission, which had inquired into the irregularities in purchase of coal and transformers in the period between 2002 and 2009 by Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL).
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice K. Sreedhar Rao and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the order while hearing the petition filed by Vaijnath Patil, the former Minister.
The petition said that after debate in the Assembly on the irregularities in coal purchase in September 2009, the government on October 13, 2009, constituted a one-man commission of inquiry headed by V.P. Mohan Kumar, retired judge of the Karnataka High Court.
Though the commission submitted its report in October 2011, Mr. Patil said that the authorities have not revealed to the public the findings of the inquiry.
Search committee
While hearing another PIL, which questioned the inclusion of N.R. Shetty, the former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, in the search committee to suggest names for the post of the Vice-Chancellor for the University of Mysore, the Bench ordered issue of notice to the State government, University Grants Commission (UGC) and Chancellor of the Universities in Karnataka.
Petitioner S. Sekhar, a member of Grahakara Parishad, Mysore, and an RTI activist, contended that as per Section 14(30) of the Karnataka Universities Act, 2000, Mr. Shetty is ineligible to be part of the committee as he is associated in the affairs of an educational institution having links with the university.
Mr. Shetty, who is a member of Governing Council of NITTE Meenakshi Engineering College, Bangalore, and the Head of Academies, NITTE Research Centre, was a signatory for seeking recognition of University of Mysore for the NITTE Research Centre, the petitioner claimed.
