Cautioning the police officers that they cannot ‘play a mischief with the court’, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday termed as ‘casual approach’ the manner in which the police had inspected pubs and other liquor joints in Indiranagar to check noise levels.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad made these oral observations after noticing from the status report that the police had taken officers of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to check noise levels in the evening or early in the night though residents complained of noise pollution at or past midnight.
The bench was hearing a PIL petition by various residents’ welfare groups of Indiranagar on various illegalities in the operation of over 100 pubs at Indiranagar.
To a question on how did they measure the noise level in the absence of equipment as the KSPB had told the court during an earlier hearing on June 13 that the tender invited by the Board to procure equipment was stayed by the court, the representative of the State and the police said that the police had procured the equipment.
However, to another query by the bench, the counsel admitted that the equipment were ‘not calibrated’ to check the noise level as per the law. Also, though it was claimed on behalf of the police that inspection was carried out at midnight, they could not produce evidence to substantiate their claim.
Noticing that no police officer had signed the inspection report on noise level as it was signed by an officer of the KSPCB, the bench orally directed that a senior police officer prepare a confidential plan for surprise inspections of these joints and submit details to the court in a sealed cover besides taking steps to provide protection to representatives of residents’ groups while carrying out surprise inspection.
The bench also orally directed the counsel representing the BBMP to instruct officials to submit their response on petitioners’ allegations that many pubs are operating on roof tops with temporary structures illegally.
