HC orders govt to return land appropriated from Bajaj trust

The High Court of Karnataka has ordered authorities to transfer the 354.10 acres of land they hold off Magadi Road to Jamnalal Bajaj Seva Trust.

The Land Tribunal (Bengaluru North) cited provisions of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act to pronounce the land held by the trust as 'excess', which the court dubbed 'reprehensible' as Justice P S Dinesh Kumar also directed the chief secretary to ensure that revenue officers posted to the land tribunals are adequately apprised of the position of law.

"It is about time proper remedial action is taken by the state on this behalf. A copy of this order is sent to the chief secretary, Government of Karnataka, to take note of the observations made in this paragraph and take appropriate remedial measures and ensure that the revenue officers posted as member/secretary are properly appraised of the position of law. The action taken on this behalf shall be placed on the record of this case within three months," the court said.

The land tribunal had passed three orders showing different extents of land as 'excess land'. After a couple of rounds of litigation, the tribunal on November 28, 2017, passed the third order holding the lands as excess land. The trust came to know about the order through a newspaper report in December 2017. On that very day, revenue officials organised three mahazars (spot inspection) and took possession of the lands.

The high court pointed out that though the provisions of Land Reforms Act had no application to the lands held by the trust. By way of abundant precaution, the trust had filed a declaration before the land tribunal, Bengaluru North, regarding 400 acres of land.

However, despite the lands being-non cultivable, the tribunal passed orders in 2010 and 2015 directing the trust to surrender the land. When this was contested, the high court had remanded the matter back to the tribunal with certain directions.