Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Privileges panel to recommend action against Krishna Bhat

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore Oct. 21. The president of the Vishwabharati House Building Cooperative Society, B. Krishna Bhat, who has been issued notice of breach of privilege of the Legislative Council in two cases, failed to appear before the Privileges Committee of the House today despite its direction to do so.

Taking note of the absence of Mr. Bhat, M.C. Nanaiah, Chairman of the committee, said the panel had decided to go ahead with its proceedings despite the order of the Karnataka High Court extending the stay given to Mr. Bhat by six weeks from October 13. Mr. Nanaiah told presspersons that the committee would meet within three weeks.

He said the committee would go according to the law and report its decision to the Legislative Council for initiating action against Mr. Bhat. It was also decided not to give any more time for Mr. Bhat to appear before the committee.

This was the second time he was asked to appear. Mr. Bhat did not appear before the committee on October 8, as he obtained a High Court stay against the notice.

The privilege notice in question was issued to Mr. Bhat, when the High Court dismissed his public interest litigation on the proposed foreign tour by legislators.

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the Chairman of the Legislative Council, the Chairman of the Privileges Committee of the Council, the Secretary, Department of Parliamentary Affairs, and the Joint Secretaries to the Law Department and the Council are the respondents in the court case.

According to sources, the Advocate General, who had informed the Privileges Committee about the stay granted by the High Court up to October 13, did not intimated the committee about the extension of the stay order. The committee came to know of it only when Mr. Bhat sent a copy of the order to it, the sources said.

The committee is reported to have decided to invite the Advocate General for a discussion on the next course of action to be followed in the case.

The other case in which the Privileges Committee had issued notice to Mr. Bhat related to the letter he wrote to the Council Chairman, B.L. Shankar, asking him to advise the members on the issues they could raise in the House. That case is coming up before the committee tomorrow.

Apart from Mr. Nanaiah, the others present in the meeting were K.C. Kondiah, V.S. Acharya, S.V. Manjunath, K.B. Munivenkata Reddy, K. Niranjana Naidu, and M.D. Ramesh Raju.

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