BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Saturday rejected the request of the state government to transfer public interest litigation petition with regard to the monitoring, protection and rejuvenation of lakes, to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said that the high court is dealing with the restoration as well as rejuvenation, and removal of encroachment of the lakes in the state.
However, the NGT is only dealing with the issue of restoration of water bodies, it said. The bench said that the state government in its response did not say that a transparent process was not adopted in the selection of private firms for rejuvenation of lakes. The court was hearing a batch of public interest litigations relating to rejuvenation of lakes.