The audacity of BDA; HC imposes Rs 5 lakh fine on its officers

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru:

The High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs.5 lakh to a petitioner who was wronged by the Bangalore Development Authority since 1967. It has directed that this amount be recovered from the erring officers. It has also ordered for allotting 2 guntas of site to the petitioner whose land was illegally used in the formation of a layout.

Coming down heavily on the BDA for forming a layout without acquiring the property of a private citizen, the HC said, “The BDA being a statutory Authority is required to act in terms of the applicable statute and the BDA has no business in the first place to make use of a land of a private citizen for formation of layout without acquisition.” K Srinivas Murthy approached the High Court in 2016 with a petition that was disposed of by Justice Suraj Govindaraj on January 9, 2023.

Murthy’s father owned property in survey number 35/4 of halasuru village to the extent of 11 guntas. It was acquired by the erstwhile City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) for the formation of HAL IV Stage layout in 1967. However in 1976, the acquisition of the said property was withdrawn. Still, the BDA formed a layout on the 11 gunts of land. Murthy’s father approached the HC in 1997 against it. He was directed to approach the civil court as BDA claimed that the said 11 guntas was in survey number 30 and not survey number 35/4.

The land was surveyed and it was found to be in 35/4. But BDA did not accept it. His father again approached the HC in 2011 which directed that he should be given 50 per cent of the land in alternate developed land. The BDA however gave alternate developed property to the equivalent of 3.5 guntas of land claiming it had formed the layout on 7 guntas of land belonging to Murthy’s father. Murthy approached the HC seeking alternate land for the remaining 4 guntas of land