Bengaluru: The High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL challenging the appointment of DK Shivakumar as Chief Minister, describing the petition as "frivolous" and filed merely for publicity.A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice KS Hemalekha imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioner, Mangalappa of Hubballi, and directed him to deposit the amount with the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within two weeks.The court declined a request by the petitioner's counsel to withdraw the plea and proceeded to dismiss it.The petitioner had argued Shivakumar's swearing-in along with 13 ministers violated Article 164(1A) of the Constitution. He further argued that since the Karnataka Legislative Assembly has 224 members, the Council of Ministers should comprise not less than 24 members and not more than 33 members.Rejecting the contention, the bench said the petition was based on a complete misreading of the constitutional provision."The petition is premised on an erroneous ground that the number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a council of ministers cannot be less than 12 per cent of the total members of the Karnataka Legislature," the court observed.A plain reading of the proviso to Article 164(1A), the bench noted, makes it clear that the number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a state shall not be less than 12."We are of the view that the present petition is essentially being filed to seek publicity and has resulted in an obvious and unjustifiable imposition on judicial time," the bench said while dismissing the petition.