'Time to send an IAS officer to jail': Karnataka HC over officers not following court orders
Bengaluru(PTI): Expressing displeasure that government officials were not following the orders of the High Court, a division bench of the Karnataka HC on Monday made an observation that "it's time an IAS officer is sent to jail".
A single-judge bench ordered the state on July 19, 2021 to issue a notification within two months of a draft amendment rules regarding merging Group-C with Group-B jobs in the various municipalities of the state.
An employees association of the Karnataka city municipality workers had filed a contempt petition as the single judge order was not followed.
The matter came up for hearing on May 31, 2022 but the state government had failed to issue the notification.
The HC had posted the hearing to June 6 and directed Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh of the Urban Development Department and M S Archana, director of Municipal Administration to be present.
On Monday, both the officers were present before the division bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi.
Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa informed the court that the draft rules have been framed and notified on June 3. Objections can be filed within 15 days. An affidavit stating this was submitted to the court.
The court recorded the submission and adjourned the case by six weeks. The court also directed that the officers should be present in court on the next date of hearing too.
During the hearing on Monday, the court observed that officers were not taking court orders seriously. It was because they were summoned to court that the court order was followed to an extent.
The HC said "it is time an IAS officer is sent to jail", as it made no secret of its displeasure about the behaviour of government officers not following court orders.
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After billboard collapse, BMC to take down remaining hoardings on GRP land
Mumbai (PTI): The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will on Tuesday start taking down the remaining hoardings on Government Railway Police (GRP) land at Chheda Nagar in the eastern part of Mumbai, where 14 people lost their lives after a billboard collapsed during a dust storm, an official said.
At least 14 persons were killed and 74 injured after a 100-feet-tall illegal billboard fell at a petrol pump in Ghatkopar during dust storms and unseasonal rains that lashed the city on Monday.
The civic body has prepared a plan to raze the remaining hoardings on the GRP land, the official said.
The BMC had earlier said that it issued a notice to M/s Ego Media Private Limited for installing the hoarding that collapsed on the petrol pump, and the police have registered a case against the company's owner, Bhavesh Bhinde, and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Talking to PTI, a senior official said the assistant municipal commissioner of the N-ward had issued a notice to an advertisement agency to remove these hoardings with immediate effect, but the civic body has not received any response so far.
The GRP has informed that it does not have the necessary equipment to remove the remaining hoardings and requested the BMC to take them down, he said.
The hoardings are erected back to back and will have to be razed one after the other, the official said, without specifying the timeframe for the demolition.
Another civic official said the hoardings were located along the Eastern Express Highway, which connects Mumbai with Thane.
They are placed about 100-150 meters away from each other, he said.
Though the BMC allows holdings of a maximum size of 40x40 square feet, the illegal hoarding that collapsed measured 120x120 square feet.
