Dr Shivram Karanth layout: 'Constructions raised after August 3, 2018 judgment liable to be demolished'

The Supreme Court has noted with a concern new constructions coming up in the land meant for the Dr Shivram Karanth layout and directed the Bangalore Development Authority to stop raising of new buildings with immediate effect.

A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna also made it clear that buildings constructed after August 03, 2018, cannot be regularised and are liable to be demolished. On the date, the top court had quashed the dropping of land from acquisition proceedings.

"Bangalore Development Authority is directed to stop further constructions in the said layout with immediate effect and this direction shall be implemented strictly by the BDA," the bench said.

The court also extended the term of the Justice A V Chandrashekar committee, appointed to identify lawful constructions made in the land meant for the layout in Bengaluru, till March 31, 2022.

It directed the state government to depute additionally one Executive Engineer (EE), two Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE) and four Assistant Engineers (AE) to the BDA within a period of 15 days.

After going through the status report of June 2, the court said it is clear that BDA has not taken possession of any land so far.

"We direct the BDA to speed up the acquisition proceedings. BDA to file latest Status Report within a period of two weeks," the bench ordered.

On examining records, the Committee found that as many as 13 layouts have been formed after appropriate permission from the BDA.

Thus "the BDA is restrained from acquiring the lands for the formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth layout," the court ordered.

The top court had earlier decided to protect the buildings and dwelling houses which have come up on about 650 acres of land meant for the layout proposed initially in 2008.

The court had on August 3, 2018, passed a judgement directing the Bangalore Development Authority not to drop the land acquisition from the proposed layout, posing serious repercussions to those who built the houses over there.