After being repeatedly pulled up by the Karnataka High Court for enormous delays in implementing its directions, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has set up an exclusive team of officers to implement the orders in a time-bound manner.
As the BDA said that it has now set a deadline of three months to adhere to the orders, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum directed the BDA to identify all the cases in which directions were issued and take steps to implement the orders.
In his affidavit, BDA Commissioner H.R. Mahadev has said that the Board has granted permission for appointment of two law officers and five lawyers as nodal officers to exclusively assist officers and staff comply with around 500 orders passed by the court.
The Commissioner has stated that steps are being taken to ensure that litigants are not further pushed to approach the court under the Contempt of Courts Act against the BDA for not adhering to the directions issued in their favour.
The affidavit was filed in response to the court’s earlier direction to the BDA to put in place a mechanism to ensure compliance of court orders. Recently, the court was awarding cost on BDA’s officials for delay in adhering to its directions.
‘ Right direction’
Terming the machinery created by the Commissioner as “a step in the right direction that shows intent to take positive steps”, the bench directed the BDA to submit the steps taken to comply with the court’s orders.
The bench had pointed out that the BDA was not adhering to the court’s directions for executing sale deeds and to allot alternative sites to successful litigants within the given time frame, and such directions were not implemented even after litigants initiated contempt proceedings for breach of the orders.
