BENGALURU: High Court Judge N Kumar on Monday recused himself from hearing a rape case filed against Ramachandrapur Mutt seer Raghaveshwara Bharthi Swami.
He is the third judge to recuse himself from hearing the case. The seer is accused of raping a Ramakatha singer. A Division Bench, comprising Justices N Kumar and B Veerappa, refused to hear the writ petition by the seer seeking the quashing of the FIR. The bench refused to hear the matter without providing any reasons.
Earlier, judge K N Phaneendra had recused himself from hearing the petition filed by the seer seeking to quash the notice issued by CID asking him to appear for medical examination. He did this after he learnt that the victim had appealed to the President seeking a fair trial in the matter.
Phaneendra had said that he did not wish to continue hearing the matter since the victim did not have faith in the judge. The matter was then referred to another judge who directed the seer to undergo a medical examination.
Earlier this month, Judge Ram Mohan Reddy had recused himself from hearing the writ appeal filed by the seer seeking to quash the FIR against him. He too had not provided any reasons.
Earlier, the government had submitted to a Division Bench, headed by Chief Justice D H Waghela, that the medical examination and the DNA test reports were positive in helping the prosecution.
‘Frame Norms on KPSC Issue’
The High Court on Monday issued a notice and asked the state government to frame guidelines before the appointment of chairman and members to the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ram Mohan Reddy, was hearing a petition filed by activist T J Abraham in this regard.
Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar appealed to the court to clarify that issuing a notice does not mean that the matter is sub-judice in any way or to stop the governor from going ahead with the appointment of persons already referred by the government for appointment to KPSC. However, the bench refused to issue any such clarification. It also questioned the Advocate General about how the government could be careless while recommending the names of people to such constitutional positions.
The Advocate General replied that the step was taken since the government needs to fill 800 vacancies.
The Chief Justice said that a permanent solution needs to be found for the issue.
The further hearing of the case was postponed to February 16.
Direction on Abandoned Borewells
The High Court on Monday directed the Groundwater Authority to submit a report once in three months to the Legal Services Authority about abandoned borewells. A Division Bench, comprising Justices E S Sujatha and K L Manjunath, issued the order before disposing of the petition. In a report submitted, the court was informed that as of August 30, 2014 about 1,92,245 abandoned borewells had been closed down by the government.