The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by a few residents of Malleswaram seeking a direction to the authorities concerned to reserve a public land for parking and challenging the construction of houses for slum-dwellers there.
Terming that the plea was “filed with a private objective in mind” the court said that the petitioners had tried to drive away slum-dwellers, which is contrary to the objective of the Karnataka Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act, 1973.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the order while dismissing the petitions filed by R.V. Sridhar and others. The Bench quantified the cost as Rs. 7,000 and directed the petitioners to pay equally to each of the respondent authorities.
