JOIN USSite allotment HC summons former BDA commissioner
The High Court on Friday summoned senior IAS officer Shankarlinge Gowda, who had earlier served as the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Commissioner, in a case pertaining to allotment of a civic amenity (CA) site to a society for constructing a school in OMBR Layout.
Hearing a petition by Ashok Kumar D, the Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen asked Gowda to appear in person before the Court on November 23.
Kumar’s petition said that the CA site number 3, situated at the OMBR Layout was arbitrarily allotted to Basaveshwara Maha Vidya Samsthe, a society, by the BDA. The petitioner said according to the undertaking given by the BDA in a petition filed by the Old Madras Banaswadi Layout Welfare Association, seeking cancellation of allotment of 13580.89 sq mts land to the Coastal Engineering for Fisheries, the Authority said that it will allot a small part of the CA site in OMBR Layout only to a government primary school and retain the remaining land as playground.
Kumar said the BDA violated its own undertaking and, as per the documents obtained under Right to Information Act, the agency, along with BBMP transferred the land to the society by violating all provisions of law. The roads abutting the property are very narrow and not more than 30-foot wide and, it will result in traffic jams and disturb the peace and quietness of the neighbourhood, he added.
The Division Bench observed that the BDA failed to issue notices to the State government, which did not start a Kannada medium school. “Instead, the civic amenity site was allotted to Basaveshwara Maha Vidya Samsthe. Prima Facie, the then commissioner of BDA may have committed contempt of court. Accordingly, summons be issued to Gowda to be personally present in the Court on November 23, 2012", the Bench said.
Judge to watch movie
The High Court has directed a lower court judge to watch the Kannada movie “Satyananda,” reportedly based on the controversial godman Nithyananda.
Hearing the petition by filmmaker Madan Patel, Justice N Ananda directed VIII Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Bangalore City, to watch the movie and pronounce judgement. Patel had prayed the High Court to vacate the stay issued by a lower court on releasing the film.