The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday adjourned till Friday further hearing on a petition which had questioned the Bengaluru city Police Commissioner’s order “restricting public access” to Phoenix Mall of Asia, after the police sought time for further deliberations with the mall management as suggested by the court earlier.
When the petition, filed by Sparkle One Mall Developers Pvt. Ltd., which developed the mall, came up for hearing before a Bench of Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum, the Advocate-General sought time on behalf of the city police stating that two rounds of deliberations were held and more time was needed for further deliberations to solve traffic congestion caused due to large number of vehicles of mall visitors piling up on the road.
The court, in a special sitting held on Sunday, had made it clear that the Commissioner’s prohibitory order issued under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code shall neither be treated as an order completely prohibiting or preventing using of the mall for its business purposes nor completely prohibiting and preventing the public from having access to it.
Also, the court directed the police not to take any precipitative action against the mall till the matter is resolved amicably or further orders were passed by court.
