P R RAMESH Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The instant writ petition has been preferred by three Petitioners, P.R. Ramesh, M. Ramachandrappa and T. Prabhakar. It is a petition filed in public interest. Petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 are former Mayors of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (hereinafter referred to as the BMP). The BMP has now been renamed as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (hereinafter referred to as the BBMP). The erstwhile BMP had jurisdiction over an area of 227 sq.kms., whereas, the BBMP covers an area of about 800 sq.kms. The BMMP now includes 7 additional city Municipal Councils, 1 town Municipal Council, and 111 villages surrounding Bangalore city, which were not included in the BMP. The third Petitioner is a former Chairman of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. All the three Petitioners are permanent residents of the city of Bangalore. All of them own immovable properties in the city, and are tax payers.

(2.) Through the instant writ petition, the Petitioners seek to highlight, that the BBMP is not carrying out its statutory obligations, as are ordained under the provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Corporation Act). It is also the case of the Petitioners that the contractual obligations of the BBMP are being executed in utter defiance and in flagrant violation of the provisions of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, 1999 (hereinafter referred to as the Transparency Act) as also the rules framed there under.

(3.) The express case set up by the Petitioners is, that vested interests controlling the affairs of the BBMP are achieving their purpose by delaying the process of holding elections to the BBMP. It is sought to be pointed out, that on the expiry of the tenure of the Councillors of the BBMP, the State government appointed an Administrator to carry on the functions and activities of the BBMP. The position projected is, that vested interests controlling the affairs of the BBMP, have been exploiting the situation through the Administrator, nominated by the State government.