The high court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the construction of a sports complex in a park at Vivekananda Layout in Shimoga city.
During the hearing, Ashok Haranahalli, counsel for the petitioners Nagaraja Rao and two others, submitted that the four-acre park is a public amenity and people use it for morning and evening walks.
Even when the layout was formed, it was earmarked as a Civic Amenity (CA) site and reserved for the park.
The state government is constructing the sports complex for commercial benefit while ignoring public good, Haranahalli stated and sought directions to the government not to construct the sports complex there.
The government advocate submitted that the land was earmarked for a sports complex with a swimming pool, synthetic track and other sports facilities in the four-acre area.
The petitioners had filed the petition with mala fide intention as they used to park their schools buses and other vehicles in the park area, which they would be denied if a sports complex comes up there.
The complex will be used for only sports activities and there won’t be any commercial use of the building, the government advocate said and sought to impose Rs 1 lakh as cost on the petitioners for wasting the court’s time and halting the construction work for nearly eight months.
A division bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna, which heard the Public Interest Litagation, observed that 80 per cent of PILs are filed with mala fide intention and the provision of PIL is not being used for public good.