The Supreme Court, in its recent order, has instructed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to regularise 300 buildings that were built in the area notified for the formation of the Shivaram Karanth Layout. Owners constructed these structures between 2014 and 2018.
The regularisation of the 300 buildings has come as a huge relief to property owners. The court also directed the BDA to issue regularisation certificates to the owners in a transparent manner within four weeks under the supervision of the committee. The authority has also been asked not to acquire or take possession of these properties subject to the order issued on December 3, 2020.
The SC order is based on recommendations by the Justice A.V. Chandrashekar Committee that was constituted to identify lawful buildings in the notified area.
Jayakar Jerome, former commissioner of the BDA, and S.T. Ramesh, former Karnataka Director-General of Police, are members of the committee.
The committee has A.V. Chandrashekhar former judge of the Karnataka High Court, as its chairperson. The committee had received over 6,000 applications from building owners in the notified area, both offline and online.
Physical inspection
Through physical inspection by the officials and scruinity of the documents available, the committee decided when applicants had constructed the buildings: before 2014 or between 2014-18, as well as those built after the Supreme Court order.
“Collecting and scrutinising data gathered is an exhaustive exercise,” said Mr. Ramesh. “Firstly, we dealt with buildings that came up between 2014 and 2018. The year is significant because in 2014, the Karnataka High Court had struck down the notification issued for formation of the layout. Later it was challenged before the Supreme Court and in 2018 the SC upheld the notification and directed the BDA to go ahead.”
According to Mr. Ramesh, out of the 300 buildings a majority of the owners had not taken permission from authorities such as the BDA or the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or from local panchayats to construct the buildings before the Supreme Court issued the order.
“In the first batch, we have identified 300 structures that were constructed before 2018. Though these were constructed without approval, demolition is not an option. Many of the owners had power supply or were paying taxes. It is a peculiar situation. These structures had come before the Supreme Court issued order on the formation of the layout and owners did not have any intention to violate the order. Hence, we recommended regularisation of these structures.” Mr Ramesh said.
After scrutiny of the remaining applications, the committee will submit reports to the Apex Court in batches.
In October, the BDA demolished many structures that had come up in the notified area after 2018. At the time, officials had said that they had identified over 500 ‘illegal’ structures in the notified area.
