The Times of India       09.12.2010

HC restrains PMC from sealing road

PATNA: The Patna High Court has restrained Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) from making any construction or erecting gate on the approach road leading to Jagat Bhawani apartment, west of officers' flat, adjacent to the Bailey Road here.

A single bench presided by Justice Navin Sinha passed the order on the writ petition of Jagat Bhawani Apartment Residents' Association secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha submitting that the erstwhile Patna Regional Development Authority (PRDA) had in 2004 approved the map plan of Jagat Bhawani apartment on the ground that it would be constructed on the lane (approach road) linked to the Bailey Road. But the PMC, which later took over the PRDA, recently took a decision to seal that very lane which provided the vital thoroughfare to the residents of the apartment.

Petitioner's counsel Tegh Bahadur Singh submitted that PMC's decision to seal the lane was affecting the basic right of the persons living in 40 flats in the Jagat Bhawani apartment for movement and easy access to the the main road through the said lane.

Life convicts acquitted: A division bench, comprising Justice Shyam Kishore Sharma and Justice Akhilesh Chandra, on Wednesday acquitted six life convicts, including one Naresh Paswan, allowing their appeal challenging sentence of life term to them by a sessions court of Bhagalpur for murder of one Rameshwar Mandal on September 22, 1986, in Bhagalpur district.

Appellants' counsel, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, submitted that the four witnesses on whose evidence the appellants' were given life sentence were actually relatives of Mandal, who was shot dead on the fateful day by unknown persons. Khan added that no independent witnesses were examined with regard to the murder of Mandal.