The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday gave 10 days to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to submit a phase-wise programme to conduct a survey of all illegal constructions in the city, as the civic body did not submit the particulars as per the November 25, 2019 order of the court.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar issued the direction during the hearing of a PIL petition, initiated suo motu by the High Court, on illegal constructions in the city.
The court had in November 2019 asked the BBMP to come out with a time schedule by December 18, 2019 for the survey in different parts of the city to identify structures built without obtaining permission and those built with permission but contain substantial and major variation from the sanction plan.
As the BBMP did not submit the programme, the court had on January 22, 2020 given another month to submit the programme with a caution that action for contempt of court would be issued if the programme was not submitted by February 26.
When a senior counsel appearing for the BBMP pointed out that policy of regularisation of certain types of illegal constructions is pending before the apex court, the bench said that conducting a survey would help the BBMP to identify the buildings to which the government’s policy of regularisation would be applicable.
The bench also made it clear that its earlier order does not mean that structures that are eligible for regularisation should also be demolished while observing that action for demolishing any illegal structure should be as per the law, which means that BBMP can consider the illegal structures if they are eligible for regularisation as per the law.
Further hearing was adjourned till March 9.
