The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed litigants, who have complained about several instances of violation of COVID-19 norms of wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and public gathering involving prominent political leaders, to submit their complaints to the grievance redressal machinery created by the State government.
The court also indicated that it would take serious view if the grievance redressal mechanism fail to act properly when the litigants before the court submit their complaints in writing.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the directions while hearing a PIL petition, filed by city-based Letzkit Foundation, through which the court is monitoring actions initiated by the State government and its authorities in dealing with violation of COVID-19 norms.
“Let us test how effectively the grievance redressal mechanism is functioning,” the Bench orally observed.
Instances of violation of norms during the inspection of Bengaluru metro project by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and a few other Ministers and top officials of the project were among instances brought to the notice of the court during the hearing of the petition.
However, as the Government said that it has already created a mechanism to deal with complaints about such violations, the Bench asked the litigants to first submit their complaints to the authorities concerned and come back to the Court if they failed to act.
