BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday passed an order to hold a special sitting on Saturday to hear public interest litigation (PIL) relating to potholes and stormwater drains (SWD) in the city. The special sitting was convened so that hearing of these matters do not affect other cases.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S G Pandit asked the court registry to list these matters to be taken up at 2 pm on Saturday. The court had indicated during the last hearing that these matters are taking a toll on the court’s schedule and affecting the hearing of other cases. The court’s observation came as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has failed to make city free from potholes despite being given more than a month’s time.
The court resolved to hold a special sitting after consent from the counsels of petitioners, BBMP and the government.The court asked its commissioners, M G Uma, member secretary, Karnataka State Legal Services Authority; and Dinesh Agrawal, superintending engineer, CWE (Army), Military Engineer Services, Bengaluru, to submit the report of the inspection made by them to check the pothole-filling exercise by the BBMP.