Today (March 14th), the Karnataka High Court issued a notice to the State government regarding a public interest litigation (PIL) petition opposing the naming of public places and government buildings in Davanagere after Minister SS Mallikarjun and his father, Congress MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
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BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court recently turned its attention to a public interest litigation (PIL) concerning the naming of various public spaces and governmental structures in Davanagere. The names in question were those of Minister SS Mallikarjun and his father, the Congress MLA Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
This action came about after a division bench, including Chief Justice NV Anjaria and Justice Krishna S Dixit, responded to the PIL by issuing notices to the involved parties-both political figures, the State government, and local administrative bodies such as the Deputy Commissioner, the Corporation, and the Zilla Panchayat of Davanagere.
The PIL, initiated by Raghavendra KC through his advocate Vinod Kumar M, pointed to a precedent set in 2012 by the High Court itself, which declared the practice of naming public properties after living politicians as unlawful.
This precedent was established in a ruling on June 4, 2012, by then Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice BV Nagarathna, wherein they mandated the removal of then MLA K Madal Virupakshappa’s name from a playground, stipulating,
“It shall not be named after any living person and certainly not in the name of a public figure who is certain to gain advantage from such name. If there is any politician who is desirous of having his name immortalized, he is free to do it on his own property and provided that no public funds have been used,”.
This ruling also empowered the Deputy Commissioner to review and rectify instances where public buildings were named after living politicians, and it allowed individuals to seek legal recourse if these corrections were not made.
In the context of this established legal framework, the current PIL highlighted the widespread naming of public and government assets in Davanagere, such as a bus stand, a lake, the Zilla Panchayat Sabhangana, the Corporation meeting hall, a park, and even an entire residential layout, after Mallikarjun and Shivashankarappa.
The petitioner also drew attention to a signboard at Davanagere’s entrance, which, while indicating that the illumination was financed with public funds, conspicuously featured images of the father-son duo. This case raises significant questions about the propriety and legality of such naming practices, reflecting broader concerns regarding the intersection of politics and public space in India.
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