Bribery case: HC relief for Ashwath Narayan, Vishwanath

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has quashed the summons against Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N. Ashwath Narayan, MLA and BDA chairman S.R. Vishwanath, C.P. Yogeshwar, and K. Srinivasa Gowda.

The special court had issued summons against them in connection with the allegations of bribing Kolar MLA K Srinivas Gowda for the tune of Rs 30 crore as part of the ‘operation lotus’ plot to topple the then Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

Though the High Court has quashed the summons, it has, however, kept the private complaint in the matter alive before the special court. It has directed the special court to issue orders to the complainant to obtain prior sanctions to prosecute the elected representatives, and only after the necessary sanctions are obtained, the court may further proceed in the matter.

The deputy chief minister and three others had separately approached the High Court against the summons against them by the special court.

The complainant, T J Abraham, had previously approached the Speaker seeking permission to prosecute, to which the Speaker had responded saying that he was not competent to give such permission.

Later, the complainant approached the Governor. But the complainant stated that despite several months, the Governor did not respond to their plea and hence approached the Special Court, which took cognizance of the matter and considered the ‘no response’ as deemed to be given permission and issued summons to the parties.

According to the complainant, the three had lured Kolar MLA to defect to topple the Congress-JDs coalition government with a bribe of Rs 30 crore and paid Rs 5 crore as advance to the MLA.

PIL DISMISSED

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed the PIL which had questioned the construction of the Jungle Lodges and Resorts by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) at Dubare forest in Kodagu district.

The court has also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 upon the petitioner PS Mohan and four others for filing a petition with ulterior motive and wasting the court’s precious time.

The petitioners had approached the court citing that KSTDC had not obtained any permission from the central government under the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act for construction of the jungle lodges and resort.

However, the court was informed that it completely comes under the jurisdiction of KSTDC and no permission is required from the central government. It further said that the Managing Director of the resort would be an IFS officer, and hence there is no involvement of private parties in the matter.

“We are of the view that the writ petition is filed without any material to support the contention raised in the petition and it appears that it has been filed with ulterior motives in order to pressure the respondents -- the state authorities. The conduct of the petitioners as such is deprecated for the purpose of wasting the precious time of the court by imposing cost of Rs 50,000 which has to be paid to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority,” said a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi.

GASTRO INSTITUTE

The High Court has dismissed a PIL which had questioned the construction of Gastroenterology Science & Organ Transplantation Institute, and directed the State Government to immediately start the construction of the proposed hospitals and complete it in a time bound manner.

A PIL was filed questioning its construction on the premises of SDS Tuberculosis Research Center & Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases Bengaluru. The petitioner had claimed that it was not in the interest of the public to construct the institute inside the premises of another one, as it affects the tuberculosis patients.