Karnataka HC urges slum board to expedite Devraj Urs Colony

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has instructed the Karnataka Slum Development Board to accelerate work in the Devaraj Urs Colony, a slum dweller rehabilitation project in Sajjepalya village, Bengaluru.

This directive came as the court dismissed a petition filed by the Central Relief Committee of the Beggars’ Rehabilitation Centre.

Established under the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975, the Central Relief Committee contested the declaration of 27 guntas of land within the allotted 63 acres for slum rehabilitation as a slum area under the Karnataka Slum Areas (Development) Act, 1973. The committee claimed possession of the land and argued against the legality of issuing a preliminary notification under the latter act.

The court affirmed the state's authority to designate an area as a slum.

"The effective implementation of the act would come within the Social Welfare Department. It is a wing of the state. Effective rehabilitation of slum dwellers would come within the Slum Development Board, another wing of the state. One wing of the state fighting against the other has led to poor slum dwellers being caught in the crossfire, who have not seen the light of the day of getting the houses constructed,” Justice Nagaprasanna said.

"What is taken away by the impugned action is barely 27 guntas, out of the 63 acres. The Central Relief Committee has kept the pot of litigation boiling for the last seven years and no rehabilitation of the slum dwellers has taken place. If a major portion of the land had been taken away, it would have been a circumstance altogether different, which is not the one in the case at hand. Therefore, the challenge is rendered unsustainable, and a direction must ensue to speed up the construction in the 27 guntas of land declared to be a slum by the impugned action," the court further said.