Operating with limited resources, Karnataka’s Anti-Land Grabbing Courts are not enough to deal with the huge number of cases from across the State. The office of the Anti-Land Grabbing Courts has recently written to the Revenue Department (under the administrative purview of which this court is functioning) to increase the number of special courts and also establish district-level courts.
At present, the Anti-Land Grabbing Courts function from two halls in the premises of Kandaya Bhavan in Bengaluru. They deal with cases from across the State. Set up in 2016 under the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act (2011), the courts were instituted to exclusively focus on cases involving government land. According to available data, out of the 14,040 cases received since the courts started functioning, only about 3,000 have been issued numbers while the rest are pending. Of the 3,000, only 400 cases have been disposed.
Speaking to The Hindu , an official privy to the developments said, “It takes a long time to process each case, as unlike other courts, which deal with running cases, here we have to begin cases from scratch, by verifying, scrutinising the relevance and registering the case before taking further action.”
The Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act (2011) provides for the constitution of an Additional Bench, based on requirement. According to Section 7 (4) of the Act, “The government, if it is of the opinion that Additional Bench of the Special Court is necessary for trial of such cases, may likewise constitute Additional Bench of Special Court, by notification, in respect of such area, as may be specified therein…”
A look at the available data shows that some of the districts from where large number of cases have been forwarded are Bagalkot (2,356 cases), Chikkaballapur (1,113) Shivamogga (681) and Chikkamagalur (1,281).
A legal professional associated with the court said that centralising the proceedings was counterproductive as people from across the State had to travel to Bengaluru to be heard. “The idea is to take judicial assistance to people’s doors and not the other way around. Hence, district courts are the need of the hour. As and when we get more cases, it will be difficult to manage,” the official said.
Emphasising the role of the court in protecting government properties, Special Public Prosecutor B.S. Patil said ever since the Anti-Land Grabbing Court was set up, it was acting as a deterrent to land grabbers encroaching government land. “The court has been able to successfully make land sharks weary of encroaching government properties,” he said.
