The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the State and its authorities not to dispossess the occupants of S.S. Hospital, located in Ideal Homes Layout in Rajarajeshwarinagar, and not to demolish any structure till completion of the proceedings initiated to ascertain ownership of the land on which the hospital was built.
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer passed the order while disposing a petition filed by the hospital questioning the notice issued by the district administration on September 28 claiming that it was kharab land, belonging to the government, which was encroached by the petitioner. The district administration, in the notice, had asked the petitioner to produce documents related to ownership of the land failing which they would be evicted from the property.
The petitioner had contended that the land was earmarked as a civic amenities site by the Bangalore Development Authority. In 1997, it was allotted to Davangere-based Bapuji Educational Association on a 30-year-lease.
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Former minister Shamanuru Shivashankarappa is a honorary secretary of the trust. The hospital is run by M/s S.S. Hospitals of which Mr. Shivashankarappa is one of the directors and chairman.
Despite responding to the notice asserting ownership of the land, the petitioner-hospital said that authorities were threatening to take possession of the seven-storey building and demolish it.