×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

HC tells govt not to process applications of Akrama-Sakrama

Last Updated 19 March 2015, 19:10 IST

The High Court has directed the government not to process applications for regularising building bylaw violations in BBMP limits under the Akrama-Sakrama scheme.

The BBMP, which was to start accepting and processing applications on March 23, can only receive them. A division bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ram Mohan Reddy also directed the government to submit details of the number of identified building violations, and adjourned the hearing to April 15.

The court censured the government for its decision to regularise building bylaw violations under Akrama-Sakrama and demanded if the government had any futuristic plans for development of cities.

The judges wondered why the government was legalising such violations when several judgments of the Supreme Court were clearly against regularisation.
The bench also questioned the lack of integrity on the part of officials who failed to check such violations. The court is hearing a petition by Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development for quashing the Akrama-Sakrama rules. The Forum said that the penalty percentage under the new rules was comparatively less than that fixed in the 2007 rules.

Another petitioner, Citizens’ Action Forum, has raised the issue of the government not consulting the Metropolitan Planning Committee, which was established in January 2014, before notifying the Akrama-Sakrama rules. It pointed out that the government was not just regularising building bylaw violations but also violations of land use.

Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar, however, defended the government’s decision, saying it was trying to put a cap on the indiscriminate development in Bengaluru in terms of number of apartment complexes, vehicles, etc.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 19 March 2015, 19:10 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT