Taking serious note of the “disobedience” of senior officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) towards court orders, the High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday issued bailable warrant to BBMP’s Engineer-in-Chief and directed the Chief Commissioner to personally appear before the court in two separate proceedings.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the direction while hearing two separate batches of the PIL petitions, one related to potholes and the other about solid waste management.
Pothole issue
When BBMP’s counsel told the Bench that the Engineer-in-Chief is ill and hence could not appear in person in the pothole case, the Bench said that it cannot appreciate such a conduct when the officer has neither filed any application in writing seeking exemption nor counsel has sought exemption during the commencement of day’s proceedings.
While ordering issue of bailable warrant against the Engineer-in-Chief, the court directed the City Police Commissioner to execute the warrant and produce the Engineer-In-Chief before the court on next date of hearing.
Solid waste dumping
In the case of petitions related to solid waste management, the Bench observed in its order that prima facie the BBMP has clearly disobeyed the March 6, 2020, order of the court to stop dumping of solid waste at Mittaganahalli quarry pit if the authorisation is not granted by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board within three months.
“We, however, make it clear that BBMP cannot be permitted to continue with the illegality in which they are indulging in by allowing dumping of solid waste at Mittaganahalli quarry. If authorisation is not granted by the Pollution Control Board within three weeks from today, the dumping of solid waste in the said site shall be forthwith stopped,” the court had said in its March 6 order.
The Bench on Tuesday noted that the BBMP has not stopped dumping garbage in Mittaganahalli quarry even though the KSPCB had not granted authorisation under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. The Bench also pointed out that the BBMP, in its August 2021 affidavit has clearly stated that it has been dumping mixed solid waste at Mittaganahally quarry.
Following this, the Bench issued direction to BBMP’s Chief Commissioner to personally appearing in court on March 5.
