Apart from the former Lokayukta Shivaraj V. Patil and the former Upalokayuktas R. Gururajan and Chandrashekaraiah, it has now emerged that relatives of powerful politicians too were allotted plots by the Karnataka Judicial Department Employees' House Building Cooperative Society despite the fact that they were never employees of the State Judicial Department.
Documents available with The Hindu show that D.K. Suresh, brother of Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, was allotted a 2,400 sq ft plot at Yelahanka by the society on September 4, 2000. The sale deed shows that Mr. Suresh paid Rs. 61,598 for the plot.
The allotment was made at a time when Mr. Shivakumar was Minister for Co-operation in the Cabinet of S.M. Krishna. The allotment to Mr. Suresh appears to be in violation of Clause 10 of the Model Bye-laws for housing societies laid down by the State government. For, this clause dictates that an allottee must necessarily be an employee of the organisation for whose employees the society has been formed. Further, the clause stipulates that the allottee must have “put in a minimum continuous or intermittent service of five years in Karnataka”.
In a judgment in the case of Narayana Reddy versus State of Karnataka, 1991, a Division Bench headed by Justice Rama Jois had held: “In case of house building societies formed in respect of employees of any organisation or industry, the membership should be confined to the employees who may continue as members even after retirement and the societies should be prohibited from enrolling outsiders as members.”
Unlike in all other sale deeds, there is no mention of the membership number, even though the sale deed says that Mr. Suresh, one such member-applicant, has paid the said amount from time to time. Mr. Shivakumar, in his response, said that the allotment made to his brother has been cancelled. When it was pointed out that the encumbrance certificate continues to show that his brother is the owner of the plot, he reiterated, “The allotment has been cancelled.”
