The High Court on Monday quashed the order of the Deputy Commissioner of Chamarajanagar, which has allotted 3 acres of revenue land for disposal of municipal solid waste near the Biligiri Ranga Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in connection with the PIL alleging allowing dumping garbage near the Tiger Reserve Forest area in Vadagere Village, Yalandoor Taluk of Chamarajanagara district.
During the hearing, villagers of Vadagarahalli, contended that Chamarajanagara CMC has been dumping waste near the BR Hills that is just half a kilometre from the tiger reserve.
According to rules, such activities are prohibited within 10 km from the tiger reserve area.
The CMC without any clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the Forest Department and KSPCB and other departments concerned illegally allotted the land for municipal solid waste disposal.
The petitioners further stated that the villagers of the Vadagere and surrounding villages are opposing the said allotment and had submitted many memoranda to the respondents and conducted many protest but the respondents forcibly started the work without considering the welfare of the society and as well as environment.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen directed the state to allot the land in some other place which should be away from forest and human habitat and disposed the petition.
PIL on Kannada flag Disposed of
Following the state government’s submission that it has withdrawn the notification on making mandatory the hoisting of Kannada Flag in all schools, colleges and government offices on November 1 to mark Kannada Rajyotsava, the High Court on Monday disposed the Public Interest Litigation alleging misuse of the flag by various organisations.
Hearing a petition filed by Prakash Shetty, the court contended that Narayana Gowda, president of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, had been misusing the flag for promoting the organisation and for personal reasons.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna recorded the statements of the state government and disposed the petition.
Earlier during the hearing, Advocate General S Vijayashankar stated that the state government has issued a notification on October 4 stating “no other flag other than the national flag can be hoisted and saluted by the state during official functions and the decision announced in the budget when D V Sadananda Gowda was chief minister to make mandatory the hoisting of the flag was withdrawn.”
HC Stays Proceedings Against Soorinje
The High Court on Monday ordered an interim stay in the Lower Court proceedings against private Kannada channel reporter Naveen Soorinje, who was arrested in connection with the Mangalore home-stay attack case.
Hearing the petition by Naveen to quash the complaint against him, Justice H N Nagamohan Das ordered an interim stay on and asked the police to explain the reasons for his arrest and directed the police to file objection on quashing the complaint and adjourned the case for further hearing.
Naveen Soorinje, who had recorded the incident live on video, was made the 44th accused in the case. He was charged under several sections of IPC, including conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, rioting with deadly weapons, criminal trespassing, assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty and many others.
A group of activists had attacked the boys and girls at the Morning Mist Homestay at Padil, alleging that they were indulging in a rave party.
The police arrested 29 persons, including Soorinje. The court has denied bail to all the arrested.On November 17, the third JMFC Court in Mangalore had rejected the bail application and observed that bail applications filed by the accused youth after the filing of the charge-sheet were still pending.