Karnataka HC appoints committee to bring peace between advocates and police
Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday constituted a 10-member high-level committee to iron out differences arising between the advocates, police and the administration.
The panel includes the Advocate General, the Karnataka DGP and the Principal Secretary of the Home Department.
The formation of the committee was announced by the division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit who were hearing a petition taken up on its own over the incident in Chikkamagaluru where an advocate was beaten up by the police. This led to a law and order problem in Chikkamagaluru.
The state handed over the case to CID to investigate.
The High Court today said that in addition to the investigation agency doing its job, ''In our considered opinion which the tall members of the Bar too agreed all stakeholders should gather at one place to discuss the matter and generate a congenial atmosphere and restore amiability between the Bar, the police and the District administration.'' The other members of the committee are senior advocate and former Advocate General, Uday Holla and senior advocates Jaykumar S Patil, V Lakshminarayana, KN Phaneendra, D R Ravishankar, Vivek Subba Reddy, president of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru and Azad Ali Khan, president of the Chikkamagaluru Bar Association.
The committee was directed to meet at the Advocate General’s office on December 9 at 11 am. It will then submit its recommendations to the High Court.
Six police officers of the Chikkamagaluru Town Police Station, including a sub-inspector of police, were suspended over the November 30 incident in which advocate Preetham was caught by the police riding a two-wheeler without a helmet. He was taken to the police station where he was allegedly assaulted by the police. After protests by the advocates, the policemen were suspended. Five cases were registered against the policemen and the case was handed over to the CID. On Thursday, the High Court was informed that some police officers had gone on strike over the suspension.
Expressing serious concern, the court said, ''We share the same anguish. Strict discipline being the first requirement of the police force, it would be a case of fence swallowing the crop. What a section of the police staff has allegedly done is absolutely unacceptable to this court and to the civil society.'' However, the court refused to direct the arrest of the police officers involved in the November 30 incident and said restraint was the need of the hour. Citing the Supreme Court judgement in Lalita Kumari Vs Government of Uttar Pradesh, the court said that it was an issue pertaining to the domain of the Investigating Agency and ''therefore restraint in this regard is warranted.'' The court adjourned the hearing to December 12.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Maharashtra Congress chief Patole meets Kharge, dismisses resignation talk as 'rumours'
New Delhi, Nov 25: Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday dismissed as "rumours" talk of his resignation following the assembly polls debacle and stressed on "collective accountability" for the defeat.
Patole made the remarks after meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge during which he conveyed that the result had not reflected the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra.
"Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other national and state leaders were leading Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from the forefront during the assembly polls. So, we were sure that the trends were in favour of Maha Vikas Aghadi, even the citizens believed that," the Maharashtra Congress chief said.
"If I talk about Nanded, the Lok Sabha bypolls and assembly elections were held on the same day. In Lok Sabha bypolls, our candidate was winning in six assembly seats, whereas, in the assembly elections, we are not winning even a single seat," he said, adding that there cannot be such a "huge difference".
This is the sentiment among the people also and they have stated that this government in Maharashtra was not being formed on their votes, he claimed.
"So, I spoke to Mallikarjun Kharge on this," he added.
Asked whether he had offered to resign or the party had asked for his resignation after the Maharashtra assembly polls defeat, Patole said, "These are all rumours and there is no truth in them. There is collective accountability."
Patole also said he will meet Rahul Gandhi in a day or two and discuss all issues.
"Democracy is being finished. We have discussed that... there was no talk of resignation," he said.
The MVA alliance, comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), was restrained to 46 seats by the Mahayuti that reaped a rich harvest of 230 seats in the 288-member House.
