The High Court of Karnataka on Monday said that the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is required to consider invoking penal actions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the violators of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules in addition to imposing fine as mere levy of fine may not act deterrent enough in all the cases.
Also, the court said that the penalty amount recovered from each of the violators during past four years is too meagre to work as a deterrent and the stakeholders, both the BBMP and the State government, are required to consider these aspects afresh.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit issued the directions during the hearing of the PIL petitions, related to the city’s waste management issues, through which the court has been monitoring measures taken by the various authorities to address the garbage menace.
The Bench made these observations after noticing from the BBMP’s data that around ₹11.66 crore has been collected as fine from 3.8 lakh individuals and other violators, including those who dump garage in undesignated public places, failed to segregate waste into wet, dry, and other, etc., between September 2019 and August 2023.
“Merely imposing penalty may not serve the purpose in all the cases. There is a requirement of additional measures by way of deterrent measures so that violator may not commit violation repeatedly or do may not act so casually due to meagre penalty amount prescribed for violations, including repeated instances of violations. To deal with these aspect, the BBMP may also consider initiation of penal action through appropriation provision of of the IPC...,” the Bench observed.
User fee
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the BBMP to take appropriate steps as early as possible to levy the user fee on each property as per the Rule 59 of the SWM Rules, 2016.
Noticing that the BBMP is not yet levied the SWM user fee on the properties as per the Rules, for want of approval from the State government, the Bench said that the provision of the Rules does not prescribe need for obtaining such prior permission from the government to levy the user fee.
Duty of citizens
While observing that one cannot accept that it is the responsibility of only the civic agencies to keep the city clea, the Bench said the citizens too are required to act dutifully and not to lead the city to health hazard by violating the SWM rules, The Bench told the BBMP to reach the citizens though modern digital media platforms, for promoting awareness on adherence to the rules and duties, and to encourage citizen participation.
Though the Bench appreciated the BBMP’s efforts in implementing the SWM Rules, it said that the civic body is required to exert a little more effort and also should come out with out-of-the-box approaches to address the city’s waste management issues.
