BENGALURU: Pulling up the state government and the Centre for inaction over denotifying highways, the High Court asked if they had turned bar and restaurant owners (petitioners) into ‘shuttlecocks’ by writing to each other over denotifying a stretch of national highways passing through the city.
The court took them to task for the delay in renewal of excise licences to the petitioners.
Justice Vineet Kothari observed, “Denotification is a mere clerical job. But the inaction of the state and central government has led to unnecessary litigation. Are you playing shuttlecock?” The judge took serious exception to the inaction of both the governments during the hearing of a batch of petitions filed by 21 bars and restaurants situated in the Central Business District seeking directions for denotification of a stretch of 77.64 km of National Highways 4 and 7 and renewal of their excise licences.
The petitioners contended that the National Highways, NH-4 and NH-7 have been by-passed by development of Ring Road in the past, but in the absence of any appropriate notification from the Central or state government denotifying the stretch of highways, their licences are not being renewed. The excuse given is that they exist on the roads not yet denotified as national highways and their excise licence renewal cases are not being considered.