Noticing a ‘misguided and authoritarian misadventure’ in the demolition of a house in a ‘casual and mechanical’ manner , the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday laid down guidelines to be followed by the BBMP for initiating action against any unauthorised construction.
Among other things, the BBMP will have to issue notices on unauthorised construction with proper address of property owner/s, identify boundaries of the property, give reasonable time for submitting a reply [ see graphic ].
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed the order while allowing an application filed by Kavitha Podwal, who personally argued her case, seeking damages from the BBMP for demolishing her house at Doddanekundi in violation of a stay order by the court in April 2016.
The bench issued the guidelines after observing from the BBMP’s records that a provisional order, which declared that she had put up an ‘unauthorised’ construction, was ‘bald and does not even contain the schedule of the property or the boundaries’ and no reason, much less cogent ones, were assigned for issuance of the order. Even the final order for demolition of the house does not disclose consideration of the facts of the case, the bench observed while noticing that the BBMP had issued the order at the instance of Sagir Ahmed, who claimed ownership of the property in which Ms. Kavitha had built her house.
Also, the bench noticed that the BBMP had neither placed any material to show that proceedings under Section 462 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act were initiated for executing the confirmation order for demolition nor any ‘reasonable time’ was given to Ms. Kavitha. “It is significant to note that, no time limit is prescribed either in the provisional or final order, although it has been the case of the applicant [Ms. Kavitha] that both the orders were never served upon her,” the bench observed.
The bench has expressed ‘shock’ over BBMP’s response for not acting on a representation, submitted by Ms. Kavitha to the BBMP commissioner on May 2, 2016 regarding the court’s April 28 direction. The BBMP had claimed that her representation might have ‘missed’ the attention of the commissioner, as it was handed over to his private secretary.
“This stand of the BBMP, is far too imperious to be countenanced. Obviously, a citizen can deliver the papers only with the secretariat. Nearly 14 months have elapsed since the disposal of the writ appeal and submission of representation by the applicant. Unfortunately, in a case of this nature, wherein a citizen has approached this court with far-reaching allegation of demolition of her dwelling house, and this court has called upon the commissioner to consider the representation, the respondent authority despicably cold-shouldered the issue in a casual lackadaisical manner and in flagrant disobedience of the orders of this court,” the bench observed.
Imposing a cost of ₹25,000 on the BBMP, the court directed the commissioner to act on her representation, provide her the relevant documents, like the mahazar drawn up before demolishing her house, and quantify the damage and pay the same if the commissioner concludes that the demolition was illegal.
Guidelines to BBMP
1. In a notice/provisional order, the name and address of owner/khatedar shall be clearly mentioned
2. The identity of the property and the boundaries shall be delineated in an unambiguous manner
3. BBMP shall record specific findings with regard to alleged deviations
4. All notices and orders shall be served strictly in accordance with the law
5. Reasonable time shall be specified in the provisional order and granted to the property owner to file a reply
6. Before confirming the provisional order, the officer concerned shall record his satisfaction that the provisional order was served to the owner/khatedar
7. Reasons for confirming the provisional order shall be clearly recorded by the officer concerned
8. Reasonable time for compliance shall be clearly mentioned in the final order
9. No demolition shall be undertaken without recourse to Section 462 of the KMC Act
10. These directions [guidelines] shall be strictly complied with
