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In a major development, the single judge bench of High Court (Dharwad) has annulled the Karnataka governor’s order of appointing a one-man commission to probe the charges against Karnatak University’s suspended vice-chancellor H B Walikar.
Justice H Billappa who heard the arguments of both sides over the writ petition filed by H B Walikar on Thursday decreed that there were procedural lapses in initiating probe charges against Walikar and 10 others, and quashed the FIR filed by the Lokayukta police against Walikar and 10 others.
Walikar in his writ petition had contended that the governor, also chancellor of the universities in the state, had no powers under the Karnataka State Universities Act 2000 to order the probe against the vice-chancellor who is an ‘officer’ of the university and not an ‘employee’.
“Section 8(1) read with Section 12 of the Karnataka State Universities Act 2000 under which the chancellor has ordered the probe applies to the employees of the university.
The vice-chancellor does not come under the ‘employee’ category. He comes under the ‘officers’ of the university category (Chapter III of the KSU Act). Section 14(7) and 14(8) states that the chancellor has to act against the erring vice-chancellor on the advice of the state government on consideration of the report of an inquiry ordered by it under sub-section (8).
“It is the state government which should appoint the inquiry committee. In this case the state government has not been consulted. Moreover, the one-man inquiry commission did not give me an opportunity to make a representation in my defence,” Walikar had contended and asked for annulling of the constitution of the probe committee and the subsequent FIR filed by the Lokayukta police against him and 10 others.
Justice Billappa observed that there had been procedural lapse on the part of the chancellor and ordered annulling of the formation of one-man commission and Lokayukta police’s FIR. The court has also found procedural lapses in filing FIR as Justice Padmaraj had not sought a statement from Walikar during the probe, though the latter had offered to depose before the commission and give his version on the charges.
Governor Vajubhai Vala, based on the allegations made by three members of the Save Karnataka University Action Committee, had appointed the one-man commission headed by retired high court judge B Padmaraj to probe the allegations. Accordingly, Justice Padmaraj had visited the university, examined the documents and submitted his report to the governor. The report had said, there is prima facie truth in the allegations.
University registrar Chandrama Kanagali had filed an FIR against Walikar with the Lokayukta police on October 7 on the directions of the governor under Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code, which led to arrest of several people.
Temporary relief
Special public prosecutor Mallikarjun Swamy Hiremath, who represented the prosecution said there were options to challenge the high court order in the division bench or Supreme Court. Save Karnataka University Action Committee member and senior advocate Arun Joshi claimed that the court has given only temporary relief to Walikar citing technical grounds.
“The High court has not exonerated Walikar from all charges faced by him. It has left the doors open to a fresh enquiry through a proper procedure. Therefore, the governor has power to start investigation again by following relevant procedure under Section 14 of the act with the consent of the government,” Joshi said.
