Royals not at ease

The Mysore royal family lives in discomfort with the Karnataka government on Palace grounds ownership. While the government says it is public property, the royal family says it is private property as it was not gifted to the State government as public property and was actually listed as private property by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (1919-1974). While 199 properties in Bangalore and Mysore were offered as public property to the State government, two properties were deemed private by the king - the Palace grounds and Mysore Palace. In the late 1940’s and soon after independence, the State government allowed Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar to retain the two properties under a treaty signed by the Mysore government and the Union of India. But the context has changed drastically since then and the Palace grounds is in conflict between the royal family and the Karnataka government.

Looking back, the conflict doesn’t appear to be the fault of the Wadiyar family. Back in 1950, the Union of India signed a treaty with the Mysore government, like it did with other princely states, that a list of properties would be drawn up, and those classified as public would go to the Union of India, and those classified as private would remain with the royal family. That’s how the Palace Grounds remained with the royal family in the 1950’s and after and that’s also why the family has legal and titular hold over the property. 

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was generous and gifted away 199 properties to the state government. In Bangalore if one looks at the vicinity of Palace Grounds, the vast tracts of land given away by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar included the Indian Institute of Science, Tuberculosis Institute and soap factory. Originally, the grounds were an 800-acre sprawl, extending up to Sankey Tank, and included what is now called Sadashivanagar and Lower Palace Orchards. To this day, a water line runs through the grounds, supplying water to these areas. Over time, the areas coming under Lower Palace Orchards and Sadashivanagar got transformed into residential layouts apart from the land given to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. What was left was about 450 acres. While the battle for the grounds began in the 1970s, it intensified in the mid-90s. 

In 1996, the Karnataka government passed a new law, seeking to acquire the Palace Grounds, describing it as public property that would be used to develop a botanical garden. The government then claimed the land’s heritage value would be preserved. The royal family claimed that being their sole property in Bangalore, it was their main source of income and livelihood. The family moved the Supreme Court challenging the acquisition act of the State government. The Supreme Court, then, in two orders, in 1998 and 2001, allowed the family to make use of the grounds for events, music concerts and marriages. Varchus Vin S S Raje Urs, grandson of Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, has said publicly that the family began organising small events after 2000 as a source of income. 

The Supreme Court had stipulated guidelines for use of the property, and government’s permission was required for events. “Everytime we organised an event, we had to run from pillar to post for permissions. We had to approach 15 departments and several officers. We had to give 30 days’ notice for each event. There was confusion about several things. Did the royal family have to clear the garbage? Or was it the municipality’s duty? Finally, good sense prevailed and a single window agency was created for permissions. Things went smoothly for a while,” Varchus said.

While this semblance of normalcy continued for many years, things turned sour around 2012 when the royal family was being pressed hard to comply with the rules.
 They were issued notices virtually everyday alleging they were violating Supreme Court orders. They were even asked to offer explanations. An independent opinion was sought and it was declared that there were no violations. But government continued to accuse the family of violating norms. The government said permanent structures had been set up in place of temporary ones. It is believed the government accused the family of causing traffic jams and even traffic-deaths. 

The Palace Grounds and the events held there, the royal family states, is their main source of income and livelihood and that they don’t have property or land other than that. They also claim that there is no property or land other than that. The family says it is a normal family with no lavish and fancy lifestyles or exorbitant incomes or have hundreds of cars. The money the family generates from the events is income, but they have to pay a wealth tax. It is interesting that the government charges the family wealth tax at market rates and the sisters of Srikantaddata Wadiyar, who hold 28 acres each or a total of 140 acres, have to pay Rs 2 crore every year as wealth tax since 2000—which amounts to Rs 130 crore for 13 years. Srikantadatta Wadiyar himself owes Rs 200-220 crore for the 250 acres he holds. Shockingly, the wealth tax of Rs 380 crore the royal family needs to pay is dramatically higher than the compensation the government is offering them for the entire 450 acres—Rs 11 crore. It was in 1996 that the government passed a special law to acquire the grounds. 

The Rs 11 crore compensation amounts to just Rs 5.75 a square foot! Even in 1996, the market rates were around Rs 3,500-4,500 per square foot, and the family was entitled to Rs 3,000 crore. At current market rates, the royal family ought to get Rs 9,000 crore, with rates at around Rs 10,000 a square foot. The Mysore royal family feels singled out when most other royal families in India—in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh—own 10 to 20 times the property the family does and are even allowed to develop them. 

Related:
Missing the concerts and fairs
Banished from the Grounds