High court quashes fine on Nalanda SDO

PATNA: A division bench of the Patna high court, comprising Justice T Meena Kumari and Justice Vikas Jain, on Friday quashed the fine imposed by state information commission (SIC) on SDO cum PIO of Nalanda district, Shekhar Chandra Verma. Verma had filed a petition in the court challenging the SIC's decision to slap fine on him.
The SIC had imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Verma for not providing information sought by an applicant in time.The court, after hearing pleas from both the sides, quashed the fine terming it to be erroneous.
JD(U) MLC's suspension case
The HC on Friday issued notice to JD(U) chief whip in Bihar legislative council, Sanjay Kumar Singh, in a case related to termination of the membership of Prem Kumar Mani from the council.
Earlier, the court had on December 2 directed the secretary and working secretary, Bihar legislative council, state chief secretary and JD(U) chief whip in the council, Sanjay Kumar Singh, to file their reply on a petition filed by the disqualified JD(U) MLC Mani, who had challenged the termination of his membership from the council in the HC.
Mani, in his petition, alleged that by issuing his termination order, council chairman Tara Kant Jha had acted beyond his jurisdiction. Jha had terminated the membership of Mani on September 12, 2011.
Mani was earlier suspended and later expelled from the JD(U) by the party leadership on charges of anti-party activities.
The court after hearing pleas from both the sides, issued notice to Singh.
Appearing on behalf of the council chairman, lawyer Kaushal Kumar Jha told the court that he would place his submission at the next hearing of the case, which has been fixed after six weeks.
Mani's counsel Dinu Kumar said that the council chairman's decision had been challenged on the ground that due procedure was not followed while terminating the membership. Mani was not given a chance to put forth his views before action was taken against him. Mani had claimed in his petition that he was very much in the party as he was attending party's functions on a regular basis.