Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
The Supreme Court has directed Karnataka’s Department of Revenue to deliver possession of 416 acres 13 guntas of government land notified for the formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout to the Bangalore Development Authority.
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna took note of a status report filed by the BDA Commissioner stating the land has been notified for the layout.
The court also directed the BDA to issue certificates to the landowners indicating their entitlement for allotment of developed lands under the 40:60 scheme or voluntary surrender scheme immediately on taking possession of their lands.
It also said for any reason, if such certificates have not been issued so far, the BDA would do so within a period of four weeks.
It also allowed a plea by the BDA for an extension of time for receiving the application from the revenue site holders till October 31, 2021. The court also directed the BDA to inform the general public about the extension of time.
The bench also directed the BDA to file the next status report within 15 days after consulting the Justice A V Chandrashekar committee.
The court passed its order while examining compliance to its judgement delivered on August 3, 2018, directing the Bangalore Development Authority not to drop the land acquisition from the proposed layout, posing serious repercussions to those who built the houses over there.
However, the top court had earlier decided to protect the buildings and dwelling houses which have come up on about 650 acres of land meant for the layout proposed initially in 2008.
In a related development, the top court pulled up the state government for transferring Dr H R Shantharajanna, who was working as engineer member, engineering Section of the BDA.
“Despite our order of August 19, 2021, he was transferred by the state government to some other department. We direct the State of Karnataka to re-transfer him to the position forthwith,” the bench said.
The court noted that the officer was heading the engineering section and was in charge of the formation of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout along with other responsibilities in the BDA. “In fact, he had filed an affidavit dated 06.02.2021 before this court in terms of our order dated 25.01.2021 indicating the plan of action for the formation of Layout,” the bench pointed out.
