The Karnataka High Court on Thursday described that the action of the State government in setting up Bengaluru Blueprint Action Group (BBAG) as ‘prima facie illogical, unwarranted and absolutely uncalled for’ while questioning the need for creation of such parallel bodies when statutory bodies are in place to undertake tasks assigned to such groups.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Krishna S. Dixit made these oral observations during the hearing of PIL petitions filed in 2016 by Namma Bengaluru Foundation, Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrashekar, and Citizens Action Forum questioning the Urban Development Department’s April 28, 2016 notification.
The notification of creating BBAG was issued when Siddaramaiah was the chief minister. The BBAG, headed by the chief minister, comprised persons from various walks of life, including famous personalities from IT and BT industries in the city.
When Additional Advocate General A.S. Ponanna defended government’s action of creating the BBAG even though there exists a statutorily constituted body like the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC), the bench said, “Why create another parallel body? Such parallel bodies are illogical, undesirable, unwarranted and absolutely uncalled for. Such bodies will only add to confusion...”
“Let the statutory bodies work. The government, if needed, can always take suggestions from any citizen, including experts and eminent persons. Nobody would say no to you [government] when you seek opinion or suggestion,” the bench said while observing that the practice of creation of such groups under different nomenclature should be stopped.
The court also noticed that even the BMPC is headed by the chief minister.
The bench adjourned hearing till Friday, asking the AAG to seek instruction from the government on whether they are defending creation of BBAG. The petitioners had questioned the need of BBAG when BMPC was constituted as per the mandate of the Constitution.