The HC of Karnataka on Friday observed that the special court for land-grabbing cases cannot, prima facie, function effectively & smoothly when some staff are appointed on ad-hoc basis from amongst retired government employees & some are working on outsource basis.
The court also found that the State government had not found time to frame rules for appointing staff for the special court as per Section 12 & 18 of the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011, which came into force with effect from October 9, 2014, & even after the special court was constituted in Aug 2015.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka & Justice Hemanth Chandangoudar made the observations while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by M.N. Venugopal & others in 2018.
The petitioners questioned the legality of appointing 18 retired govt servants for the special court contrary to the govt’s 2016 circular prohibiting appointment of retired govt officers to various vacant posts on ad-hoc or contract basis. The petitioners also pointed out that 19 of the staff members were working on outsource basis.
As the govt counsel said that rules had not been framed for laying down the method of recruitment of staff for the special court, the Bench said that due to failure of the State govt to do so, prima facie there was no effective implementation of the Act while pointing out that the purpose of enacting the law itself was gets defeated when it was not implemented substantially.
The court adjourned hearing till Jan 24, while directing the govt to spell out the outer-time limit within which rules should be framed.
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