Panel formed by SC to check illegal buildings in Karanth Layout meets

The committee appointed by the Supreme Court to check illegal buildings in the BDA's Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout held a meeting with officials on Tuesday.

The committee led by retired high court judge A V Chandrashekhar looked into the measures for the development of the layout as well as the clearance given for building plans by the BDA.

BDA Commissioner H R Mahadev said space had been provided to the committee in the agency’s central office as per its request.

Hearing a petition against the denotification of 257 acres of land from the originally notified 3,546 acres for the layout, the high court had cancelled the entire land acquisition process. However, many had already built houses by taking no-objection certificates from the BDA.

The Supreme Court, which heard the appeal against the high court order, directed the government in August 2018 to complete the land acquisition process.

On December 3, 2020, the apex court modified its previous order, stating that the houses that were built with necessary permission have to be protected. It also appointed the panel led by Justice (retd) Chandrashekhar. Former BDA commissioner Jayakar Jerome and retired state police chief S T Ramesh are also part of the committee.