"Original High Court building was constructed a century ago:" Karnataka High Court rejects plea for conducting inspection of HC building

The Karnataka High Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to inspect the High Court building. .The petitioner submitted that there was no sanctioned plan for the High Court building and further, no occupancy certificate had been granted by the BBMP.Hearing this, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka responded,“The original High Court building was constructed a century ago…”.Further, the Court said that examining such aspects is the job of the High Court as well State government, and not of private parties.During the hearing, the petitioner said that he had a masters degree from a foreign University and had enough knowledge on the subject.“This shows your personal interest,” said the Court..The petitioner also prayed that documentation of the High Court building should be approved by this Court.“The building of the High Court is a public building, without procedure being followed, we cannot allow a private individual to do the same,” the Court responded rejecting the plea. .The pleas was filed as a memo seeking intervention in already pending petition filed in 2019 relating to the use of High Court building's basement.This main petition filed by advocate Ramesh Naik, contended that the use of the High Court basement building as offices is contrary to law. It was submitted that the basement should be used for parking and installing utility equipment. The setting up of offices in the basement also violate Rule 18 of the BBMP Bye-laws, 2003, the plea said."Continuing to allow employees to work from the basement of the building, is violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The basement should be used only for parking of vehicles. Hence, it is the violation of Rule 18 of the BBMP Building By-Laws. Apart from a suffocating atmosphere, there is a chance of natural and man-made risk of fire," read the plea..Therefore, the plea sought directions to the State Government to make additional space available to the High Court, so that the use of the basement for office purposes could be put to an end.Earlier, the Court had directed directed the State government to decide on the proposal forwarded by the High Court Administration to allot few High Court offices working out of the building basement to the building of the Directorate Technical Education..During the hearing today, the Bench orally said that about fifty percent of the offices in the basement of the High Court building had been moved. .The matter will be next heard on September 3.