SC tells BDA to regularise 355 buildings falling in Dr Shivaram Karanth layout

The bench also directed the BDA not to acquire or take possession of the land/buildings, subject to conditions

The Supreme Court has directed the Bangalore Development Authority not to acquire over five acres of land being used by Shri Rama Chandra Mission Ashram Zonal Centre, in its acquisition of lands for Dr Shivaram Karanth layout. It also directed the development authority to regularise a total of 355 buildings mentioned in the eighteenth report of the Justice A V Chandrasekhar committee.

The top court noted that the Justice A V Chandrasekhar committee has allowed a request made on behalf of the mission because of various activities being conducted by it including meditation, science camps, health training and seminars, children programme, yoga sessions, medical camps, environmental awareness and raising and distributing more than 2.5 lakh saplings.

The court was examining compliance to its judgement delivered on August 3, 2018, directing the Bangalore Development Authority not to drop the land acquisition from the proposed layout, posing serious repercussions to those who built the houses over there. The layout was proposed in about 650 acres of land in 2008.

Going through the eighteenth report of the committee filed by advocate Sanjay M Nuli, a bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna made it clear that the land should be used only for the purposes for which they are being used now.

"Construction of new buildings and renovation/modification of existing buildings shall be taken up only after approvals from the BDA," it said.

The bench also directed the BDA not to acquire or take possession of the land/buildings (a total of 355) subject to the conditions. However, betterment tax may be levied at a later stage, it added.

The court also ordered the committee, to hand over a copy of the report to the BDA Commissioner for the purpose of record.

"The Commissioner of BDA is directed to issue regularisation certificates to the concerned applicants in a transparent manner under the supervision of the Justice A V Chandrashekar Committee within a period of four weeks," the bench added.

The court also directed the BDA to proceed with the acquisition of lands for the connectivity within the layout and for acquisition of non-notified areas within the layout in accordance with its the status report.

The court also asked the BDA and the state government to explain within two weeks as to under what statutory provision the authority is required to submit the proposal for administrative approval for issuance of tender notification for the formation of the layout and the government’s power to grant approval to the said proposal.