BANGALORE: The High Court on Tuesday dismissed the writ petition filed by K Shivaram, an IAS Officer, challenging the State government order prohibiting the State government employees including the bureaucrats from acting in movies and TV serials.
While dismissing the petition Justice Anand Byra Reddy observed that rule 16 of Karnataka Civil Services clearly prohibits a government servant in engaging in activities that generate profit without prior sanction.
The order states: "It is inexplicable that the government could ever have permitted the petitioner to act in films, especially commercial cinema, at all. The obvious has been overlooked. The films he was acting were being produced as business ventures of the producers. He could not directly or indirectly involve in such ventures even if it is to be accepted that the petitioner derived no monitory benefit out of it. By acting in films he is alternatively employed and that is impermissible.
"The involvement is complete and total in commercial films and the actors are paid for that. The contention that his official work has not suffered because of his preoccupation and he has shown superior management and administrative skills in his day to day work is besides the point for it can also be said that he could have done even better if not for his affair with films. When the films are commercial in nature it requires much imagination and naivety."
In his petition Shivaram contended that he acted in the films to promote art and culture.