No difference between decrees in full-fledged trials and ex parte trials, HC tells BDA

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has been ordered by the High Court of Karnataka to register a regular conveyance of a site to a decree holder within eight weeks or pay a fine of Rs 500 per day thereafter.

The HC said that there was no difference between court decrees obtained after a full trial and that obtained ex parte. The BDA had contended that the lower court had granted a decree over a site to a purchaser from an allotee without hearing the civic body.

“So far as execution and enforceability of Court decrees are concerned, law does not differentiate between decrees that are obtained after full-fledged trial and those secured placing the defendant's ex parte, subject to all just exceptions into which argued case of the Petitioner does not fit,” Justice S Krishna Dixit said in his judgment.

Further the HC said that, “Justice of the case even otherwise warrants that the BDA should do all endeavours to ensure fruits of the decree reach palms of the decree holder; an argument to the contrary cannot be sustained without undermining the sanctity of judicial process and that in turn would affect the rule of law in the realm.”

Joseph Raj, a resident of Basavaeshwarnagar, had approached the HC against the BDA and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Raj had purchased a site in Vijayanagar from a person who had been allotted the site by the BDA. Following a dispute with the seller he had filed a suit in 2011 which was decreed in his favour in 2014. When the civic authorities failed to register the site in his name, he approached the HC.

The BDA in its statement of objections had contended that BDA “was not party to the decree in question; the said decree was obtained ex parte qua the allottee of site in question; no explanation is offered for not arraying the BDA as a defendant; no possession certificate was ever issued to the allottee, though sital cost was remitted by him to the BDA in terms of Allotment Letter.” Apart from the ex parte argument, the HC dismissed the other contentions of the BDA as well.