The Karnataka High Court Monday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation seeking a Metro station at Chikkajala on the under-construction Blue Line, observing that decisions on the location of stations are the prerogative of state authorities.
A bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi disposed of he plea filed by residents of Chikkajala by referring to a similar decision taken in July in a plea for a Metro station at Bettahalsuru, which is located a few kilometres away from Chikkajala on the Blue Line that will connect Kempegowda International Airport to the city’s Central Silk Board.
The high court, however, asked the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to consider and respond to a request for a Metro station at Chikkajala based on a letter written by residents in 2022.
In the PIL, C R Naveen Kumar and six other residents of Chikkajala in North Bengaluru questioned the BMRCL’s decision to abandon the construction of a Metro station at the Chikkajala village on the Blue Line or Phase 2B, which will connect K R Puram in East Bengaluru to the airport in North Bengaluru.
The petitioners from Chikkajala sought an order to the BMRCL to stick to the original plan for the Metro station at Chikkajala. The PIL also sought to stop the construction of the Blue Line beyond Chikkajala without constructing a Metro station there.
The bench ruled that the decision on the location of a Metro station “is clearly a question that does not require examination by this court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India”.
“The manner in which a Metro station is required and the stops on a Metro line is clearly a matter which is required to be considered by the authorities. This decision on the number of stops on a Metro line will not be amenable to a judicial review,” the high court ruled.
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High court decision on demand for Metro station at Bettahalsuru
The bench, earlier on July 23, rejected a similar plea for a station at Bettahalsuru on the Blue Line to the Bengaluru International Airport.
A few residents of villages located near the Bettahalsuru Cross in north Bengaluru had approached the high court over a decision of the BMRCL to abandon plans to construct a metro station at Bettahalsuru Cross after a private developer refused to fund the station.
The residents of Bettahalasuru had argued that “it would be against public interest if the plan for construction of a metro station is abandoned solely on account of a private developer withdrawing his offer to furnish the necessary funds”.
The petitioner had argued that the plans for Bettahalsuru station were abandoned, despite the land having been acquired and compensation paid to the landowners.
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The high court had ruled in the Bettalhalsuru station matter that “the question as to whether a Metro station ought to be constructed at a particular place is not amenable to judicial purview under Article 226 of the Constitution of India”.
“The decision as to the manner in which the Metro lines are to be constructed is solely the preserve of the concerned authority. Judicial review is permissible only if the decision is malafide, capricious, or offends any statute or the rights guaranteed under the Constitution,” the bench of Chief Justice Bakhru and Justice Joshi ruled on July 23.
“Having stated above, we consider that it would be appropriate for the BMRCL to take an informed decision. We, accordingly, dispose of the present petition by directing the BMRCL to consider the representations made by the petitioners…,” the order stated.