25k min fine on civic staff allowing bylaw violations

Under the law, officers will be fined for failing to prevent violation of the building bylaws in the first and second instances. DH file photo/S K DINESH

Municipal corporation officials, including those from the BBMP, will be fined a minimum of Rs 25,000 for failure to prevent unauthorised construction in violation of the building bylaws.

The Urban Development Department Thursday informed the division bench of the Karnataka High Court that the state government has notified the draft Karnataka Municipal Corporations (levy of penalty on jurisdictional officers for failure to prevent unauthorised construction and deviation) Rule 2019 on October 4.

The high court division bench of Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice SR Krishan Kumar was hearing a public interest petition.

The penalty

The draft notification said, under section 321B of Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, the jurisdictional officer will be levied a fine of not less than Rs 25,000 and not more than Rs 50,000 for the first instance of the offence of failing to prevent unauthorised deviation or construction in violation of the building bylaws.

For the second instance of the offence, the draft rules allow penalty of not less than
Rs 50,000 but not exceeding Rs 1 lakh. For the third and subsequent instances of offence, the commissioner can take action on the errant official under section 90 of the act that empowers the commissioner to punish officers and staff.