To bring transparency in the process related to the formation of layouts by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the High Court of Karnataka has initiated a suo motu PIL petition and directed the authority to upload on its website a series of documents and details of all the layouts in a phased manner, beginning from Arkavathi Layout.
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order while disposing an appeal filed by the BDA challenging an order passed by a single judge on August 2, 2022.
The single judge had issued directions to upload layout details during the hearing on the petitions filed by three allottees of sites in Arkavathi Layout.
The petitioners had questioned the BDA’s decision to allot alternative sites in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout by illegally and unilaterally utilising the sites registered in their favour in the Arkavathi Layout for the formation of roads citing a change in the design of the layout.
As the BDA in its appeal had said that the single judge had travelled beyond the scope the petitions in issuing direction to upload the details, the Division Bench said that it would treat the matter as a suo motu PIL petition while pointing out that “the issue raised by the single judge is of seminal importance with regard to transparency in the functioning of the BDA”.
“It is needless to state that the BDA comes under the realm of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Therefore, the BDA is required to maintain transparency in its functioning and web-host all the details of the layouts formed by it,” the Division Bench observed in its order while giving 10 weeks to the BDA to upload all the particulars of Arkavathi Layout.
Corner site auction
Meanwhile, the Division Bench modified the single judge’s May 31, 2022, interim order of staying auctioning of corner sites in Arkavathi Layout, and allowed the BDA to auction the sites after reserving three sites for the petitioners before the single judge.
Details for web-hosting
The BDA has to upload on the website separately the total extent of land notified in the preliminary and the final notifications, land denotified with details of reasons for denotification and copies of the denotification along with the respective graphic description by overlaying it with the village map/Google Map/Revised Master Plan (RMP) etc.
The extent of land taken possession of with details of when possession was taken, with copies of possession notices, mahazars and development scheme notifications under Section 16(2) of the BDA Act, 1976 also have to be web-hosted.
Even the survey number-wise details on the total extent of land handed over to the engineering department, total number of sites formed with measurements, and number of sites formed in each survey number along with site numbers and their measurement in every layout required to be made available to the public on the website.
The details of litigation, if any, on the acquisition of land, with their survey number-wise details and status of cases will have to be uploaded, and updated monthly to begin with, and later on real-time basis., should be web-hosted.
