Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 14: The state high court (HC) again warned the state government on Tuesday November 13 that it will fix contempt of court charge against the principal secretary of the department of minority welfare on the issue of not placing the report prepared by the former chairman of Karnataka State Minorities Commission, Anwar Manippady, on the alleged misuse of Wakf property.

The division bench of the HC comprising Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice H P Sandesh took up a petition filed by former minister, S K Kantha, about the delay by the government to place the said report before the house in spite of high court order to that affect.

Additional advocate general, Dinesh Rao, said that an application filed in the HC seeking review of the earlier order is pending before the division bench. Therefore he sought four weeks time. The bench however observed that enough time has already been given, and that the government has failed to obey the two-year-old high court order. It said that the petition would be taken up again on November 27. It warned that unless a proper order on the review petition is submitted to the court by then, the principal secretary will have to personally appear for the hearing on that day.

The said report was prepared by the then state minorities’ commission chairman, Anwar Manippady, giving details of scam involving Wakf property. When former minister, S K Kantha, approached high court seeking directions to present the report in the house, the government had, on September 10, 2015, filed an affidavit confirming that the report would be tabled in the house during February, 2016. Kantha filed contempt of court petition thereafter, pointing out that the government had failed to obey the court order.