Status quo ordered on razed slum

Hearing a petition by Mohan and others, the residents of these slums, Justice Abdul Nazeer has ordered status quo.

The BBMP and BMRCL demolished and took possession of land measuring 23 metres by 45 metres behind the Mantri Mall on Tuesday.

The petitioners in their submission said they had possession certificate issued by BBMP in 1991. Further they said the BMRCL had forcibly evicted them, after declaring earlier that their land was not wanted.

Though the BMRCL claimed that it had issued an acquisition notification on January 7, 2010 and had provided them rehabilitation at Jalahalli, not many of them have shifted.

They further submitted that the houses were cleared to help the adjoining Mantri Mall and apartments. "This is the crux of the case. BBMP is trying to help them," said Chandrashekar, counsel for the petitioners.

The petitioners submitted that 21 of the 22 houses were demolished and pleaded that they be allowed to put up temporary sheds on the site so that they need not spend the night in the open.

But the court said:  "You should have come before the demolition. We could have protected it. Let us not mess up and complicate the matter further. We have to hear the other side as well," Justice Nazeer said and ordered status quo and adjourned the matter to July 18.

The court asked the BBMP counsel under what law the houses were demolished and possession of the land taken over.

"Under what law did you do this? You should have done it according to law. These people have not been allotted alternative houses. You are not above the law. The BMRCL has said in a lower court that they will do everything according to law," the court observed.

Proposal quashed

In a significant order, the High Court on Wednesday quashed the notification dated June 21, 1979 by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to form Kamakshi Layout on an area of 90 acres.

Hearing a petition by B Krishnappa, who has moved the High Court challenging BDA’s  decision to make 53 sites on the land belonging to him in the area, Justice D V Shylendrakumar quashed the notification observing that the project is lapsed, as the BDA failed to implement it within five years of acquisition.

Stating that the BDA despite being a public organisation has failed to meet the expectations of public at large in the recent days, the court noted that as per Section 27 of BDA Act, any notification which has not been implemented within five years is liable to be quashed.

The petitioner, has claimed that the scheme had lapsed as BDA had passed award after seven years of acquisition as against the five years mentioned in the BDA Act. The petitioner has sought an order against BDA which has sought to form 53 sites in 4 acres 10 guntas land, which belonged to him in Saneguruvanahalli, adjoining Basaveshwaranagar.

BDA had proposed the Kamakshi Layout in an area of 514 acres and 16 guntas by way of preliminary notification dated November 19, 1977.

The final notification was issued on June 21, 1979 with an area of 517 acres and 1 gunta.
However, the area reduced to 90 acres as per a BDA order on  August 18, 1986.

Land to weaker section

The  High Court on Wednesday appointed Col Bhupendra Singh, an advocate in the High Court, as court commissioner to probe into the controversy pertaining to the allocation of land to economically weaker sections (EWS) at Chikkabetttahalli in Yelahanka hobli.

Hearing an appeal by Devaki, Iqbal Hussain and N Archana, who have challenged the single judge order dismissing their petition questioning the acquisition of the land allotted to them, the division bench headed by Justice Manjula Chellur appointed Singh to study land grant and report the status to the Court.