Legislative Assembly is right platform for MLA to air grievances about fund release to constituency, not the courts, says Karnataka High Court

The Legislative Assembly, the government, and its authorities are the right platforms, not the courts, to flag the issues related to an Assembly constituency for a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), the High Court of Karnataka has said.

The Legislative Assembly, the government, and its authorities are the right platforms, not the courts, to flag the issues related to an Assembly constituency for a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), the High Court of Karnataka has said.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind made these observations in its order dismissing a PIL petition, filed by MLA for Dasarahalli constituency in Bengaluru S. Muniraju. The MLA had sought a direction from the court to the government to release the remaining ₹78 crore for development works in his constituency for which tenders were floated earlier.

“The popular government is the best judge for taking care of the needs and interests of the Assembly constituencies, the people, and citizens. Invoking public interest litigation jurisdiction of the court in such matters cannot be said to be well conceived, and such recourse will not be entertained by the court,” the Bench said while pointing out that the petitioner, being an MLA, would have to raise or ventilate his grievances before the Legislative Assembly or the government, and not before the court.

While terming Mr. Muniraju’s petition as “thoroughly misconceived and could not be entertained,” the Bench said that filing the writ petition in the nature of a PIL petition and seeking relief on such scores by an MLA could not be said to be justified.

Also, the Bench said the court cannot issue a writ of mandamus to an elected government to sanction or release or increase or decrease the amount of grant which may be decided by the government authorities in their wisdom.

“The decision-making process in such areas is guided by a host of considerations, many of which are not capable of being examined by judicially manageable criteria. These are the decisions essentially to be taken and approved by the Cabinet,” the Bench observed while dismissing the petition.