The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to issue notices to the beneficiaries who have failed to construct a house on the sites allotted to them within the period stipulated in the lease-cum-sale agreement.
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer issued oral direction to the officials of the authority in this regard while hearing a batch of petitions filed by persons whose lands have been acquired for the formation of Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda Layout.
It was pointed by the petitioners that a large number of sites on the layouts formed by the BDA earlier are still vacant indicating that people are applying for sites of BDA not for having a shelter but for investment, and hence need for formation of new layouts has no justification.
The present Rule 13 of BDA Allotment of Sites Rule, 1984 (amended in 2005) stipulate that allottees of site should construct the house within the period of five years from the date of execution of the agreement. “If the construction is not carried out, the BDA after reasonable notice to the allottee can either cancel the allotment and revoke the agreement after forfeiting 12.5 per cent of the site value and refund the balance to the allottee,” the Rule states.
Prior to the year 2005, the Rule specified that the construction should be done within a period of two years from the date of agreement.
The court has asked the authority to send its engineers to identify the sites on which construction has not been taken up despite expiry of deadline and issue notice to them as provided in the Rule and take follow-up action.
