Bengaluru/ Mysuru: The High Court has stayed the notice issued by the Public Works Department (PWD) to Mysore Race Club Limited (MRC) to stop racing activities for allegedly violating terms and conditions of an agreement. The stay order was issued by the court’s Single Judge Bench Justice A.S.  Bopanna yesterday.

The court passed the interim order on a petition filed by the MRC questioning the April 20, 2017 communication from the PWD that the club had violated the terms of conditions for leasing of government land for racing.

The department had claimed that its officials, during an inspection, found the MRC premises unhygienic and toilets were unclean and facilities for proper disposal of horse manure were poor. Failure to maintain cleanliness was a violation of one of the conditions of the lease agreement, the department had claimed. The Club has also not maintained the register of employees eligible for ESI benefits, the department had claimed.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, MRC Secretary K.G. Anantharaj Urs said that their advocate K.G. Raghavan had approached the High Court two days before the court went on a vacation. “Our petition was accepted and the court has issued a stay to the PWD order,” he said. He added that the   MRC was maintaining hygiene and was abiding by rules and regulations.

In its petition, the MRC had contended that the PWD communiqué issued on April 20 was an indirect attempt by the State government to take back the land from the club. A petition is pending for adjudication before the court where the MRC had questioned the State’s November 2016 direction to handover the possession of the property by suspending racing activities. The court had then stayed the department’s directive for stopping racing activities.