Justice S Abdul Nazeer of the circuit Bench of Karnataka High Court at Dharwad has stayed the operation of the order issued by the director, department of information, who had ordered the transfer of funds meant for the Patrika Bhavan from Karwar to Sirsi.
Two separate writ petitions were filed by the Journalists Associations of Karwar. The petition contended that Rs 25 lakh was released by the government to construct Patrika Bhavan in every district headquarter of the state for the use of the working journalists. But the director of the information department had written a letter to the deputy commissioner of Uttara Kannada district on February 2, asking him to divert the fund to Sirsi. The director had cited that the Journalists Union in Sirsi was recognized by the State Journalists Association and there was no land available in Karwar to build the Bhavan.
The Journalists Association of Karwar had challenged the order contending that the state government had allotted the amount to the district headquarters and the director of the information cannot change the decision of the government. Karwar journalists had shown that they have the land available to build the Patrika Bhavan and the director of the information department had acted unilaterally without giving the proper opportunity to Karwar journalists to prove their case. They had submitted enough evidence to the court that according to the state policy, the money had to be sanctioned to the district headquarters and not to any association or union of journalists. The high court upheld the argument of the Karwar journalists and stayed the operation of the order issued by the director of information department in this regard.
Advocates V P Kulkarni and K V Kalwad argued on behalf of the Karwar journalists.
Source - Times of India
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