Karnataka High Court stays trial court’s order for allowing home food to Darshan, Pavithra Gowda and other accused once a week

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed a trial court’s orders of directing the Superintendent of Bengaluru central prison to allow home food once in a week to actor Darshan, his friend Pavithra Gowda, and other accused persons in the Renukaswamy murder case.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the interim order on a petition filed by the Superintendent of Prisons, who had questioned the legality of two separate orders passed by the 56th Additional City Civil and Sessions Court on December 29, 2025, and January 12.

‘Blatant ignorance’

The High Court pointed out that the sessions court had passed the orders “in blatant ignorance of the direction of the Supreme Court”, which, while cancelling bail granted to Darshan and others, had observed that “the day we come to know that the accused persons are provided with some special or five-star treatment within the jail premises, the first step in the process will be to place the jail superintendent under suspension including all other officials involved in such misconduct.”

No applications

It has been pointed out in the petition that the trial court on December 29 had allowed home food for Pavithra Gowda (accused number-1), Nagaraja R (accused number-11), and Lakshman M. (accused number-11) merely on oral requests by their advocates that no proper food was being provided to them in the prison without filling any application as per the procedure in this regard.

Following this order, the Prison Superintendent filed an application seeking clarification from the trial court while pointing out difficulty in allowing home food and the procedure laid down in the prison manual.

Acting on this application, the trial court not only warned the Prison Superintendent of consequences for not providing home food despite its direction, but directed the official to provide home food to all the accused persons in the case in the absence of any application even from them.

‘Four star rating’

While pointing out that Pavithra and the other two accused have not filed any complaint with the prison authorities as per the prison manual on the food provided to them, it has been stated in the petition that Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had given ‘four star certificate’ the prison food after inspection.

Stating that no special relaxation has been given to any jail inmate in Karnataka to have home food unless it is prescribed by the prison medical officer, it has been pointed out in the petition that providing home food to these accused persons may lead to similar demand from other inmates.