Recall governor, pleads advocate's PIL

BANGALORE: A division bench of the Karnataka High Court headed by chief justice J S Khehar adjourned to next week the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by a city advocate seeking the recall of the governor and asked him to delete the governor's name from the array of parties.
The petitioner claimed the governor was giving speeches like an opposition leader, beyond the powers extended in the Constitution.He said the governor was not signing the cow slaughter ban bill and acting on behalf of the Congress. "There should be a direction to the Centre to call back or remove him from Raj Bhavan " petitioner H R Vishwanath argued.
Directive to NREGA officials
A division bench directed top officials of the the NREGA (now MGNREGA) scheme to appear in court by next Monday with regard to a contempt petition filed by the Karnataka Rajya Prantha Raitha Sangha. If the central government had complied with the high court's order of March 19, 2010 of paying the differential amount of Rs 18 from April 1, 2009 through an authorization to the state government, they needn't appear in court, the bench observed. The complainants had alleged payment not in compliance with the prescribed amount.
Grandfather sent to prison
The high court on Monday sent B A Upadhye of J P Nagar to the civil prison with regard to a contempt petition concerning the custody of his 6-year-old grandson Prithviraj.
"The accused who acted as a General Power of Attorney holder for his son has now declined to inform this court the whereabouts of his son... He claims he is not involved. We are convinced he is deeply involved in this controversy. There is an effort to manipulate the legal system to ensure non-compliance of the court's direction. It is nothing but a tactic to defeat the process of law," the division bench headed by chief justice Khehar observed.
Malini, a resident of Tilakwadi, Belgaum, filed a contempt petition, alleging her husband had taken away her son on October 11, 2009 to the US on the pretext of a summer vacation but not returned. The husband Rajesh Babu Bhupal stays in Austin, Texas.
They were married in January 2003 and Malini, complaining of harassment, returned to India. A US court gave her child custody in May 2009 but gave the father visiting rights.
Price of midnight tender
The delay in finalising the BBMP tenders concerning various civil works has resulted in cost escalation of Rs 443 crore, the state government informed the court. "It was a commercial tender. It was still not finalised. Only pre-qualification was done. The empanelled companies have not approached the court. Such a commercial decision cannot be challenged in a PIL... It is not a Rs 22,000 crore tender. It is only Rs 3,248 crore. There is a drastic rise in the scheduled rates up to 14.6%. The amount mentioned in the notification was scheduled rates of 2009-10. According to 2010-11 rates, there is an escalation of Rs 443 crore," advocate general Ashok Haranahalli said.
The division bench headed by chief justice Khehar adjourned the hearing of the PIL filed by former city mayors P R Ramesh and Ramachandrappa to Wednesday.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com