HC furious over Gowda’s letter

HC furious over Gowda’s letter
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s obsession with alleged irregularities in the BMIC Project reached a new high on Monday when he sent a controversial letter to Karnataka High Court judges airing his views on the issue.
Taken aback by Gowda’s brazen action, the judges discussed it for 45 minutes.
“We received a letter dated January 8 written by the former PM. The letter was enclosed with a booklet ‘BMIC project - A case study in fraud. Collusion to defeat the ends of justice and defraud the courts’. I enquired with judges V G Sabhahit, Ram Mohan Reddy and N K Patil. Almost all judges said they had also received the same letter. We were embarrassed. In my 12-13 years experience, I have not encountered such a situation. Thereafter, we held a meeting to decide on how to proceed with this. We had two options: one to issue a contempt notice and the other to ignore it. We have decided to treat it as PIL. If we had ignored it, then there was a chance that people would have pointed fingers at us. We decided to take it positively and deal with it legally. We don’t allow courts to become platform for politics,” Chief Justice PD Dinakaran said and adjourned hearing pertaining to the Gottigeri land issue to Feb 2. HORNETS’ NEST Nobody is above the law: NICE advocate
Bangalore: Dushyant Dave, counsel for Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise, promoters of BMIC, took exception to Deve Gowda’s letter in the high court on Monday.
The counsel pressed for initiating contempt proceedings. “If an ordinary man had written such a letter, could the judiciary have taken it lightly? This is nothing but interference in the administration of justice. Nobody is special and above law,’’ he said.
Amid all this, advocate-general Udaya Holla told the court he will not represent the state in the BMIC case pertaining to contempt. “The MD of NICE has made certain allegations against me in the media. I have decided not to represent the state in the case and Ashok Haranahalli will be officiating as special counsel,’’ he said. The CJ asked Holla to render assistance to the court whenever necessary.
WHO SENT IT?
Mystery shrouds over who handdelivered the letter and the booklet to the CJ and the judges. A separate inquiry on the carrier of the letter was held by the court.
Advocates’ Association of Bangalore president D L Jagadish said he had not authorized anybody to deliver the letter and booklets to the judges. The staff had said somebody claiming to be Jagadish’s assistant had delivered the letter. State JD(S) spokesperson Y S V Datta admitted Gowda had sent copies of the letter and the booklet. While acknowledging having sent it, Gowda declined to comment: “I will wait for the court’s notice.’’