BENGALURU: In order to send a strong message to those abusing the process of court, the Karnataka High Court imposed a hefty cost of `15 lakh on petitioners from Tumakuru district while dismissing their PIL on Thursday. The court also barred one of the petitioners from filing PILs.This is the fourth time in the last 20 days that the High Court is imposing heavy cost for abusing the process of law through PILs. A division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R Devdas not only imposed a cost of `15 lakh on 11 petitioners but also barred one of the petitioners H B Diwakar, a resident of Hogavanaghatta in Tiptur taluk of Tumakuru, from filing any PIL.
A PIL was filed before the court against the work order issued by APMC for construction of a new administrative block at the cost of `4 crore. They contended that there is no need for another administrative block since they already have one block. This was decided at a meeting on April 6, 2016, which was incidentally attended by Diwakar. Diwakar has been a member of APMC since 2005. Though Diwakar was party to the resolution passed to construct the administrative block, there was no mention of his involvement in the petition filed. On receiving instructions from the other petitioners during the hearing, the counsel of the petitioners admitted that Diwakar was party to the resolution.
The court then imposed the cost on the petitioners. Of the `15 lakh cost, Diwakar has been ordered to pay `5 lakh. The other petitioners who have to pay `1 lakh each are B S Devaraju, M Nagesh, V Shanmukha, T S Devaraju, T S Gangadharaswamy, K Gangadhar, D S Devaraju, G S Chethan, B S Yogeeshwaraswamy and H S Srikantaiah, all from Tiptur taluk of Tumakuru district. They are to pay the cost within 40 days to the Deputy Commissioner of Tumakuru. The amount collected is to be used for construction of facilities such as a cold storage.