bangalore: the supreme court on friday directed the state government to maintain status quo with regard to the construction of the legislature house annexe building. the denotification of 32 acres of cubbon park by the state government in 1998 for the construction of the second annexe that was upheld in the karnataka high court was challenged by petitioner bimal n desai and argued by m g kumar. the order of the supreme court will bring to a standstill, the construction of the legislators' home and the water tank in the indira gandhi fountain park located in cubbon park. the cubbon park, at its prime, stretched over an areas of more than 300 acres in 1873 and has now been reduced to less than 190 acres. with the object of saving government parks from further shrinkage, the state government enacted the karnataka government parks (preservation) act. a statutory duty was imposed vide this act on the state government to maintain and preserve all the government parks including the already existing cubbon park after notifying their boundaries. they also passed a general order prohibiting any construction temporary or permanent, in the cubbon park. however, statutory duty to preserve and protect the park, illegal buildings continued to be permitted inside the notified boundaries of the park. in 1997, the petitioner filed a writ petition challenging the illegal construction of the legislator's home annexe building within the notified cubbon park area. but the petition was disposed by the high court based on the assurances given by the respondents that ``the grievances of the petitioner was being remedied taking appropriate effective measures''. when a criminal contempt petition was filed later for defying the said orders. directions were issued to the state government and others to ensure that contempt is not continued ot aggravated. `but later the respondents moved an interlocutory application for modification where they prayed for modifications to the extent that respondents be allowed by the court to complete the roofing work of the basement of the building, which was allowed by the high court. meanwhile, two notifications were passed by the state government under karnataka government park preservation act redefining and reducing 32 acres of cubbon park area, thus denotifying and excluding the construction of the annexe building from the boundaries of the cubbon park.