BENGALURU: Presidents of four Zilla panchayats have moved the High Court against the state government for unilaterally accepting their resignations without checking if they were genuine or voluntary.They said many such resignation letters are given after political parties forced them to do so. The petitioners are Ramanagara ZP president and Channapatna Congress MLA CP Yogeshwar’s brother C P Rajesh, , C Muniraju (Bengaluru Urban), Latha Ravikumar (Tumakuru) and Sowbhagya Basavarajan (Chitradurga).
Hearing their petitions, Justice Vineet Kothari issued a notice to the Chief Executive Officers of all four ZPs and secretaries, Department of Panchayatraj and Rural Development, Department of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.
The judge asked the Advocate General to assist the court as the petitioners have challenged the constitutional validity of Section 179 (1) of the Karnataka Grama Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993. This Section is related to the procedure laid down with regard to the resignation of president and vice president of zilla panchayats.
The matter was adjourned to September 20. The petitioners represent Congress, BJP and JD(S). Stating that there was no law against forceful resignations of ZP presidents, they pleaded for an interim order as relief.
Four Dandupalya gang members get 10 years RI
Bengaluru: The High Court convicted four members of the Dandupalya gang on Wednesday and sentenced them to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. It ordered each of them to pay a fine of `10,000. The convicted were Dodda Hanuma, Venkatesha, Munikrishna and Nalla Thimma. The division bench of Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha convicted them for robbery & other charges.