BENGALURU: The High Court on Tuesday gave the Principal Secretary to the Minority Welfare Department four weeks to comply with its order and table the Anwar Manippady report on irregularities in Wakf properties. The court will frame charges against the Principal Secretary for “willful disobedience” of the court order if he fails to table the report, the court said.
A division bench of Justice Raghvendra S Chauhan and Justice B M Shyam Prasad gave this deadline to the Principal Secretary who appeared before the court which is hearing a contempt petition.
In his defence, the Principal Secretary submitted that a review petition has been filed against the earlier order wherein it was directed that the report be tabled before the houses of the state legislatures, as per the undertaking given by the Additional Advocate General.
To this, the court said the coordinate bench of this court did not stay the order based on the review petition. Hence, the earlier order is still in force and the report has to be tabled within four weeks, the court said.
During the last hearing, the division bench has ordered the Principal Secretary to appear before it to explain why he should not be punished for intentional and wilful disobedience of the court order.
The contempt petition was filed by former minister S K Kantha who sought punishment for the official for not placing the report before both the houses of state legislature.
I will demolish illegal construction: Realtor
A realtor from Hassan city had to pay a heavy price for constructing a Ground+7-storeyed building without valid permission. As the court took a firm stand against unauthorised construction, N Leelakumar gave an undertaking that he will voluntarily demolish the floors built beyond the permissible limit. Justice Vineet Kothari directed Leelakumar to deposit `50 lakh and asked the municipal corporation to videograph the demolition of the unauthorised construction.