BENGALURU: Observing that the state government cannot seek to table the special report of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission by not placing it before the legislature, the Karnataka HC ordered the government to place the Anwar Manippady Report on irregularities in Wakf properties before both Houses during any of the sessions in 2019.
A division bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice B A Patil passed this order while dismissing the review petition filed by the state government. The review petition was filed against the order dated September 10, 2015, passed in former minister S K Kantha’s PIL, based on a concession made by Additional Advocate General-1, to the effect that the report shall be placed before the legislature.
“It is in the interest of minorities that such a special report be laid before the legislature. No legal impediment for doing so was advanced, except contending that it is a bulky report, which according to government, is only six hundred pages”, the HC said.
“Even in a democracy, emphasis must be on the open governance, subject to confidentiality being maintained in the interest of public security or national interest...,” the court said.
The state government submitted that recommendations in the report were placed before the legislature on March 5, 2016. The Karnataka State Minorities Commission Act contemplated only laying off recommendations and the said provision cannot be made applicable to the special report on issues of Wakfs property and encroachment.