There are buildings in Bangalore that bulge as if they need a restraining belt to keep them within the site. Trees and gardens have made way for them. They tower over neighbours’ houses like giants, asphyxiating them and darkening their lives. Or worse, boards announcing IT offices, hotels or kalyan mantaps suddenly appear on them in residential areas. The neighbourhood gets congested and the peace shattered by rumbling trucks at midnight or shrill sounds of the nadaswaram at daytime.

Welcome to Bangalore, the greedy city where every inch of land is gold – where building bye-laws and land use zoning regulations are so many words on paper. Of course, a Koramangala or Sadashivanagar residents' association or a Guru Ravindranath protests about this callousness. But they are made to fear for their life by threats, intimidation and violence, because might is right here.

But now, many buildings, which used to cower inwardly at least because they were illegal, will unashamedly look up, as they will be given the seal of respectability and legality soon under the Karnataka Town & Country Planning (Amendment) Act and Rules for “regularisation of unauthorised development or constructions”.
The Bruhan Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is spending Rs one crore on ads to legalise these brazen monsters, even before the final rules are notified. The notification, which allows certain set-back, Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and even land use violations to be condoned on the payment of a penalty, has various lobbies on their side.

The rationale
The rationale for this regularisation is that violations are a fait accompli and “demolitions are difficult”. But there are several precedents of such efforts by other states being struck down by courts as being against the very purpose of the Town Planning Acts and ultra vires of the Constitution. The SC has noted: “This mess is the creation out of the inefficiency, callousness and the failure of the statutory functionaries to perform their obligation under the Act. Does the Act and Rules not clearly lay down, what constructions are legal, what not? Are the consequences of such illegal constructions not laid down? Does the statute not provide for controlled development of cities in the interest of the welfare of the people ? Why this inaction? The Government may gain affluence by enriching coffers of the State resources, but this gain is insignificant compared to the loss to the public.”

Whereas the Amendment Act specifies that the officials who abetted such violation shall also be punished, the rules are silent on this. So, do the abettors go scot-free then? Moreover, many officials who have allowed these violations are now on the “screening committee” to regularise the same violations. Is this a second opportunity for them to make money on the same buildings by allowing more than the permitted violation?
The draft notification has already fostered frenzied activity to violate as much as possible before the cut-off date, if any! Prospective violators are being emboldened as they anticipate another regularisation again after 10 years!

The Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF) and Citizens’ Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC) have observed in their objections to the Rules, “A basic principle of law is that a violator should not be allowed to enjoy the fruits of the violation” by merely paying any amount, like allowing a thief to retain a percentage of his theft by paying a percentage of the value of goods stolen!

Solutions
Under the second principle of “balance of convenience”, it would not be right to recommend wholesale demolitions which are difficult to implement.

A solution would be to seal the violating portions and prevent the violator for, say 25 years, from enjoying the benefits of the violation, suggests CAF. This Amendment punishes the honest law-abiders and rewards the law-breakers. It is symptomatic of an unjust society and makes a mockery of the rule of law, the very basis of justice. As the SC observed, “Before such pattern becomes cancerous, it is high time that remedial measure was taken to check this pattern.”
(The writer is with CIVIC)