Kochi (PTI): The Kerala High Court on Tuesday said the government funds could not have been spent for the Nava Kerala Citizen Response Programme and set aside the order authorising Rs 20 crores for the initiative.
A bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V M said the expenditure incurred for the implementation of such a programme is in violation of the rules of business.
The court's order came on two pleas, one of them by Kerala Students Union (KSU) state president Aloshious Xavier, seeking to quash the order launching the programme and restrain the government from "misusing public funds for personal and political gain of the ruling party or front".
The pleas had also claimed that the initiative was "a political campaign of the ruling party or political front, masquerading as a government programme" and that it had been launched with the singular objective of furthering their political interests ahead of the 2026 state assembly elections.
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Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed the defamation proceedings initiated by the BJP against top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The case was filed in 2023, when BJP was in power in Karnataka, following a "corruption rate card" published by the then opposition Congress to claim large scale irregularities prevailing in the state under the saffron party's rule.
Along with Gandhi, now Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, the BJP had accused the then Karnataka LoP Siddaramaiah and Congress state president D K Shivakumar.
Presently Siddaramaiah is the Chief Minister and Shivakumar is his deputy.
Challenging the defamation case, Gandhi had approached the High Court stating that the continuation of the case would be an abuse of law.
The bench of Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav allowed the petition.
The complainant said that Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had conspired together to defame the BJP government and made baseless allegation and insinuation.
