Illegal mining: Order quashing action against officials stayed

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed the order of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT), which in April 2017 had quashed the Government Order of 2013 entrusting the Lokayukta to hold a disciplinary inquiry against officials of the Revenue Department, who allegedly received bribes for allowing illegal transportation of iron ore in Ballari and surrounding regions.

A Division Bench comprising H.G. Ramesh and Justice B. Sreenivse Gowda passed the order on a petition filed by the Lokayukta questioning the KSAT’s April 19, 2017 order of allowing applications filed by some of the officials questioning the disciplinary inquiry against them.

The Lokayukta, in its report submitted in July 2011 on illegal mining activities in the State, had provided a list of officials who had allegedly received bribe for allowing illegal transportation of mines. The disclosure about payment of bribe was revealed following seizure of a pen drive by the Income Tax Department from one Karapudi Mahesh, an associate of former minister G. Janardhan Reddy.

The pen drive contained information that around ₹2.46 crore was paid to around 617 officials from the police, the mines and the revenue departments as “departmental expenses (protection money) during a certain period. And the names of these officials were found based in the period of their service at a particular post as mentioned in the Lokayukta report.

However, the KSAT, on an application filed by one Manjunath R. Ballary and another official, had quashed the Government Order of 2013 while holding that neither the Lokayukta nor the government had issued show-cause notices to the officials before initiating departmental enquiry. Pointing out that the Lokayukta report itself had recommended holding of an inquiry before initiating action against the officials, the KSAT had said that “there is a clear case of violation of principles of natural justice in the case of applicant officials.”