The Karnataka High Court on Friday stayed the actions of a tahsildar with regards to a multi-storey commercial complex being constructed in Whitefield, allegedly at the behest of an MLA.
Justice B.S. Patil passed an interim order staying a series of notices issued by the tahsildar of K.R. Puram sub-division through Mahadevapura police to the petitioner, M/s Sugam Vanijya Holdings Pvt Ltd. The firm had purchased the property in 2004 from M/s Doorvani Cables Pvt Ltd, which was allotted the plot by Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) in 1971 and registered through a sale deed in 1991-92.
The firm complained that in September-October 2013, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) issued a notice, based on a false complaint, that the company had taken possession of a portion of government land unauthorisedly. The BBMP closed the notice based on the firm’s reply. Since February 2014, the tahsildar has allegedly been harassing the firm by issuing several notices “illegally” asking for construction to be stopped even though the company had given proper replies and submitted the relevant property documents.
The petition alleges that on the insistence of the tahsildar, a director of the firm had called on him in his office on March 6. According to the petition, “The tahsildar only pleaded helplessness and requested the director to meet the local MLA, by name Basavaraj. He wrote down the MLA’s mobile numbers on a piece of paper and gave it to the director.”
