‘What direction can we give?’: Karnataka High Court declines to issue judicial orders on Bengaluru traffic, leaves it to state govt

On hearing the submission, the court orally said, “The Deputy Chief Minister himself has flagged the issue. What direction can we give?”

After going through the petition, the bench in its order said, “We expect that the concerned authorities will take necessary steps as is considered suitable as is flagged by several authorities,” it said.

In his petition, Amarnathan contended that many Bengalureans face severe traffic congestion from morning to night. He said several citizens lodged complaints with the authorities, and that commuters were missing flights, trains, buses, office hours, and school hours due to the delays.

The plea claimed that Deputy CM D K Shivakumar told reporters that his children, too, complain about the daily hurdles caused by traffic congestion in Bengaluru.

The petition also cited the instances of the November 2023 music concert of singer Hariharan, who arrived at the venue an hour late, and expressed regret, stating that it took three hours for him to travel from the airport

The petition also states that former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai received numerous complaints about traffic congestion in the city. After visiting a chronic traffic bottleneck, he reportedly told the media that he had instructed officials to take the necessary corrective measures.

The petition also relied on a newspaper report about the data from the latest TomTom Traffic Index-Most Congested Global Cities 2025-26, which showed that Bengaluru ranked in second place globally in terms of traffic congestion.