Sentencing of scribes: Karnataka High Court notice to Speaker, Karnataka government

Bengaluru: Observing that everybody's privilege must be protected, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday issued notice to State Government, Legislative Assembly, Speaker and three legislators who complained against two journalists held guilty of breach of legislative privilege.

The two journalists - Ravi Belagere and Anil Raj had moved the court after the Legislative Assembly unanimously upheld a resolution imposing one-year prison sentence and a fine of Rs10,000 on them for breach of privilege and rejected their plea to condone the punishment. Members cutting across party lines had opposed the editors’ plea on condoning the punishment and unanimously demanded immediate execution of the resolution passed by the House on June 21, 2017.

The court also observed asking the state government not to precipitate the matter by taking further action such as arresting the two and urged State to be considerate after the advocate for the two journalists prayed the court for an interim order against the resolution sentencing to jail term with fine. The case has been adjourned to December 6.

Diesel autos
HC has stayed the notification banning the registration of four-stroke passenger auto-rickshaws fitted with diesel engines.

MLA’s plea dismissed
HC has dismissed the PIL filed by former MLA S.A. Ramadass, who had challenged the recent action of the Mysuru district administration, deleting at least 26,069 voters from the voters list. The PIL had alleged that the authorities have deleted the names of the several voters in the four assembly constituencies of Mysuru on the ground that they were ‘dead’, although they are alive.