The Karnataka High Court on Thursday upheld the State government’s 2011 order cancelling its earlier decision of 2010, in which three acres and nine guntas of land was denotified from amongst the land acquired for the formation of the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Layout.
Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order while dismissing petitions filed by the original landowners and those owning revenue sites on this portion of the land prior to its acquisition by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The petitioners had supported denotification while questioning its cancellation.
“The decision dated April 7, 2010 to denotify the land was contrary to Section 48(1) of the Land Acquisition Act since possession was already taken… The order issued on July 20, 2011 was only to rectify the grave illegality committed,” the High Court observed.
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Meanwhile, the court asked the BDA to consider the plea of revenue site owners for allotment of alternative sites as per the scheme suggested by the High Court in 2005 in lieu of acquiring revenue sites for the formation of layout.
The BDA had acquired these lands along with other lands in 2003 for the layout and had passed award in 2004.
However, in 2010, these lands were denotified based on a directive issued by the then Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyruppa. “contrary” to the opinion given by the Urban Development Department officials, who stated that denotification was not permissible as possession of these lands was already vested with the State.
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The High Court observed that lands were denotified even after the BDA had formed several sites of different dimensions on the land acquired for the MV Layout.