HC: BDA has abandoned land acquired for Banashankari VI Stage

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Dismissing an appeal filed by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka has said that having failed to pass an award even after 14 years; the civic body has virtually abandoned the land acquisition process.

In the bargain the two-acre and eight guntas of land which the BDA had acquired for the Banashankari VI Stage layout was returned to the original land owners.

“There has been an inordinate delay in completion of the land acquisition proceedings. Therefore, in the absence of any explanation on behalf of the Bengaluru Development Authority, for the delay in concluding the land acquisition proceeding, the notifications dated 07.11.2002, 09.09.2003 insofar as it pertains to land held by respondents 1 and 2 cannot be sustained in the eye of law. It is accordingly quashed,” Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde said in their judgement recently.

Rashme Hegde Gopi and Shaila S Hegde had approached the HC in 2016 over the delay in BDA completing the acquisition proceedings.

On July 26, 2017, the single judge bench had allowed the petition and held that the acquisition proceedings in respect of the 2 acres 8.6 guntas of land situated at Gubbalala village has “lapsed and abandoned by the Bengaluru Development Authortiy.”

The BDA filed an appeal in 2017 which was disposed by the division bench of the HC recently. The BDA counsel submitted that “after issuance of the preliminary as well as final notification, no award has been passed till today.”

However, it was contended that the land owners could not have filed a Writ Petition seeking a declaration that the acquisition had lapsed as they had filed another Writ Petition seeking denotification of the same land.

The division bench however noted that “In the instant case, preliminary notification was issued on 07.11.2002 whereas the final notification was issued on 09.09.2003.

The Bengaluru Development Authority has not passed an award even after a lapse of about 14 years. Thus there has been an inordinate delay in completion of the land acquisition proceedings.” (WA 723/2021)