BENGALURU:In a rare instance, the Commissioner of Social Welfare Department, Vikash Kumar Vikash, has imposed exemplary cost of `1 lakh on a Bidar resident for wasting precious time by withdrawing an appeal challenging the legality and validity of the caste certificate obtained by BJP MLA Prabhu Chauhan, to contest from Aurad constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste, after prolonged arguments.
In a recent order, Vikash, who is also the Appellate Authority, imposed the cost on Shanker Rao, a resident of Shivanagar in North Bidar, besides dismissing his appeal as he filed a memo seeking to withdraw it.
“As rightly pointed out by the Special Counsel, there is a serious issue in this appeal regarding the caste status of Prabhu who contested the 2018 assembly election from BJP. When a serious issue regarding the caste status is raised before this authority, that too after prolonged arguments, Rao now has come forwarded to withdraw the appeal.
By this, he has wasted not only the precious time of this court, but also the time of the special counsel and Prabhu”, the Appellate Authority said in the order.According to the order, a copy of which is available with The New Indian Express, Vikash observed that the very conduct of the appellant (Rao) has to be deprecated.Hence, taking into the account of the time consumed by the Authority and also the conduct of the appellant, it would be appropriate to impose an exemplary cost of `1 lakh.
Case history
Shanker Rao had filed an appeal before the Bidar Deputy Commissioner, who is also chairman of the Caste Verification Committee, challenging the legality and validity of ‘SC’ caste certificate issued to Prabhu Chauhan, but it was dismissed on November 20, 2017. He then filed an appeal before the Commissioner under the provisions of Karnataka Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes Act.