BANGALORE:A division bench of the High Court on Monday stayed proceedings in the Manoj Patil electrocution case.
The BESCOM had challenged a single judge bench order to remove all transformers from footpaths.
The single judge bench had passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Ashwini Patil whose husband Manoj Patil had been electrocuted near a transformer on Church Street in May last year. Ashwini sought a compensation of `29 crore from the BESCOM blaming the power utility for her husband’s death. She had said her husband was the sole bread winner of the family.
On Monday, the BESCOM contended that the single judge bench converted a writ petition to a public interest litigation without going into the issue.
The division bench of Justices N Kumar and B Manohar, which stayed the proceedings in the case for four weeks, observed that a private litigation can not be converted into a public interest litigation. “The single judge bench was not justified in passing periodical orders which have no relevance in deciding the case before him,” observed the court.
Proceedings Against 15 PWD Officials
Lokayukta police have initiated proceedings against 15 officials of the
Public Works Department booked for misappropriation of `600 crore.
A preliminary inquiry pointed to prima facie cases against the officials in the misappropriation of funds in Magadi sub-division of Ramanagar district during 2011-12.
Cases have been filed against Sadashivareddy B Patil, chief engineer, D Udayashankar, superintending engineer, Devaraju K B, secretary to government and A Nataraju, assistant executive engineer. Assistant engineers H S Venkatesh, Kantharaju, K R Anandkumar, K C Prabhakar, G K Chandrashekhar and T V Mukundan are also under the scanner.
Govindaraju, internal financial adviser and contractor and first-division contractors Shankar, Kemparaju and Nanjaiah are the others facing the investigation.
Notices to Deputy Commissioners
Bangalore: The High Court on Monday issued notices to the Deputy Commissioners all the districts in connection with a petition related to sale of packaged drinking water. The court was hearing the petition filed by one Lochamesh B Hugar, who has sought a direction to stop the sale of packaged drinking water without certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) or Indian Standards Institution (ISI). In his petition, Hugar said private companies sell packaged drinking water without certification from standards bodies.