HC warns BBMP of contempt for the second time

For the second time in the week, the high court has warned the BBMP of a contempt case for failing to comply with the court order.

This time, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has failed to comply with the directions given over public interest litigation regarding the audit report findings between the 2011 and 2016 financial years.

Hearing the PIL filed by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation over remarks in the audit report, a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur on Tuesday observed that no action was taken to clear the pending audit objections as directed in the previous hearing.

The bench said the authorities should face a contempt case as it deliberately failed to act in this regard. They directed the civic body to fail an affidavit on the failure. The matter was adjourned to November 26.

The foundation said in the PIL that the BBMP’s audit report contained several objections for making excess payments from 2011-12 to 2015-16. The audit report raised objections over Rs 2,027 crore in 2011-12, Rs 2,640 crore in 2012-13, Rs 3,416 crore in 2013-14, Rs 4,769 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 5,269 crore in 2015-16.

On Monday, the high court warned the BBMP of contempt for failing to install display boards about compensation disbursement for road accident victims due to pothole victims in the city.