City gets licence to park, anywhere and any time

City gets licence to park, anywhere and any time

Srikanth Hunasavadi. Bangalore

The High Court on Wednesday upheld the pay-and-park withdrawal order of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), clearing the way for motorists to park vehicles without paying any charge.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice PD Dinakaran and Justice Deepak Varma dismissed the writ appeal and petition filed by parking contractor G Subramani questioning BBMP's pay and park licence withdrawal order.
On December 15, 2008, Subramani made a request to the BBMP for acquiring a licence to collect parking fee in certain areas, as he had already made a payment of Rs3 lakh as deposit for the licence. On the basis of his request, BBMP assistant revenue officer (ARO) Jagadish provided him the licence without informing the additional commissioner. Later, BBMP withdrew the pay-and-park system due to public pressure, which irked Subramani. He approached the court stating that as he had paid deposit, he should be allowed to continue collecting the parking fees. The court however dismissed his plea. On behalf of BBMP, senior counsel Ashok Haranahalli stated that the Bangalore Palike had not taken any decision to impose parking fee.
"To impose parking fee, the administrative council has to take a decision. But there is no elected council. On January 21, 2005, the council had taken a decision to ban parking fee in the city. Till date the decision has not been revoked," Haranahalli said.