By Express News Service BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to appoint two retired district judges as Claims Commissioners to estimate the damage caused to public and private properties during bandhs/protests called in 2018 over the Mahadayi river dispute and also during agitations after the arrest of former minister and MLA D K Shivakumar. Hearing a batch of public interest litigations on frequent protests causing loss to public and private properties, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar said that the claims commissioners will also fix the liability on people responsible for the damage. Making it clear that the claims commissioners are entitled to carry out their work as per the law laid down by the Supreme Court in relation to destruction of public properties, the bench said the court will monitor claims commissioners’ work and recovery of compensation. It directed the State Government to appoint retired district judge Mohammed Ghouse M Patil to investigate the protests on January 25, February 4 and April 12, 2018 over the Mahadayi river dispute. Another retired district judge C R Benakanahally will study the loss during protests from September 4 to 11, 2019 after the Enforcement Directorate arrested D K Shivakumar. The bench asked the government to provide complete infrastructure to the Claims Commissioners, like adequate office, staff, computers, proper furniture, vehicles, etc and to fix their remuneration. The government is also expected to provide a list of evaluators to these officers. The government has to now issue a notification appointing Claims Commissioners and required staff within three weeks and provide all infrastructure in six weeks. The state government should submit the compliance report by April 15, 2020, the next date of hearing. One of the petitioners, Shraddha Parents Association, has prayed to the court to restrain Vatal Nagaraj, president of the Kannada Chalavali Vatal Party, from calling frequent bandhs/strikes and to make him pay for the loss to the exchequer. In another petition, Ravikumar Kanchanahalli alleged that the damage caused after Shivakumar’s arrest should be recovered from the people who were responsible for the violent incident.

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