HC refuses to grant relief to ex-UPTU registrar

LUCKNOW: The high court on Friday declined to grant relief to former Uttar Pradesh Technical University registrar US Tomar and directed him to approach the Chancellor of the university under the rules.
Dismissing Tomar's petition, a bench of Justice Sanjai Mishra and Justice BK Srivastava held that the petition was not maintainable.
Tomar had filed the petition demanding that his suspension order passed by the vice-chancellor on July 3 be declared null and void as it was passed under political influence.
Appearing on behalf of the vice-chancellor, advocate LP Mishra while opposing the petition contended that Tomar was working on class three post in HBTI, Kanpur. Due to political clout, he was appointed as UPTU registrar in 2007, whereas a government order (GO) issued in 2003 clearly states that only a senior PCS rank officer can be appointed on that post. The counsel charged Tomar of granting many affiliations illegally to the university.
In 2013, the Supreme Court had restrained Tomar from granting affiliations but he did not comply with the orders of the apex court. On directions of the court, a committee headed by former judge of high court Justice Alok Kumar Singh was constituted which submitted its report against Tomar.
HC seeks LDA reply on levelling of ponds
Lucknow: The high court has directed the Lucknow Development Authority to submit reply within four weeks on the allegations that it was levelling ponds in Behsa village near Amausi airport. The order came on a PIL filed by Jan Utthan Samiti , Behsa. The local Samajwadi Party MLA Sharda Pratap Shukla is patron of the society. The petitioner alleged that LDA acquired illegally the pieces of land bearing gata numbers 1018, 1019 and 1021 recorded as pond in the revenue records, and of late it had started levelling them.