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Judge Vijaya Kumar Rai B of the 10th Additional City and Civil Sessions Court in Bengaluru has placed the case filed by Rajya Sabha MP Veerendra Heggade’s brother, D Harshendra Kumar, before the Principal City Civil Sessions Judge for necessary orders. The judge has asked the case to be moved to another court after it was pointed out that the judge had not only studied at educational institutions run by the Dharmasthala temple but had also worked as a junior lawyer in a firm which represented D Veerendra Heggade. The judge had recently passed an ex parte injunction to take down 8,842 links related to the Dharmasthala burials case. The Principal City Civil Sessions Judge will now decide which court will hear the case.
On July 24, journalist Naveen Soorinje and activists Muneer Katipalla and Bairappa Harish Kumar jointly challenged the gag order passed by the court on July 18.
After five days of hearings, journalist Naveen Soorinje submitted a letter to his advocate S Balan, seeking the transfer of the case to another court.
He said that Judge Vijaya Kumar Rai B had studied at SDM Law College, Mangaluru, which is run by the Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Trust, between 1995 and 1998. He said Dharmasthala institutions were mentioned both in the petition filed by Harshendra Kumar and also in the order passed by the judge.
D Harshendra Kumar is secretary on the Board of Management of SDM Law College, and his brother D Veerendra Heggade is president. Veerendra Heggade is also the Dharmadhikari of the Manjunatha Temple in Dharmasthala, Dakshina Kannada village.
After studying at SDM Law College, Judge Rai began his career by working under PP Hegde at his offices in Ballalbagh in Mangaluru. “This law firm used to represent D Veerendra Heggade of Dharmasthala,” Naveen said in his letter.
The letter mentioned that when Veerendra Heggade filed a case against journalist BV Seetaram in 2004 at the Judicial Magistrate First Class Court-III in Mangaluru, Vijaya Kumar Rai was working under PP Hegde as a junior. The case was filed under Sections 500, 501, and 502 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These sections pertain to defamation.
BV Seetaram is the editor of the Kannada newspaper Karavali Ale.
Naveen’s letter then listed out four other cases in which PP Hegde had represented Veerendra Heggade in the Karnataka High Court against BV Seetaram in 2013.
Advocate Balan filed a memo with the court, attaching his client’s letter, and sought a transfer to another court. Judge Vijaya Kumar Rai B passed an order placing the file before the Principal Sessions Judge for further action under Section 13(2)(b) of Bangalore City Civil Court Act 1979.
In the order, he said that he did study at the college, but had neither seen the plaintiff Harshendra Kumar nor spoken to him either directly or indirectly at any point of time.
“Admittedly as the presiding officer was a student of SDM Law college managed by the family of the plaintiff and one of the defendant has filed a memo as aforesaid, in order to maintain faith in the judicial system, justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done,” the order said.
Harshendra Kumar had filed a petition with the court on July 18 seeking an ex parte injunction against coverage of mass burials in Dharmasthala and also sought the removal of 8,842 links. An ex parte temporary injunction is an order passed without hearing the other party. Ex parte orders are usually issued in cases involving financial loss connected to copyright infringement and the like.
Judge Vijaya Kumar Rai B passed an order on the very same day, ordering the removal of the 8,842 links mentioned in the petition. It also passed a John Doe order, meaning that the order would even apply to parties not specifically named in the petition.