Landowners of 17 villages where 3,546 acres have been notified for Shivarama Karanth Layout, have a suffered a setback with the Supreme Court dismissing their review petition. The apex court on Monday declined to reconsider an August 2018 order directing the Bangalore Development Authority to go ahead with the layout formation.
BDA commissioner Rakesh Singh said the final notification was issued in November 2018 following the August 2018 Supreme Court order. “We are bound by that order and will implement it,” he said.
Nanjundappa, a former councillor and president of Shivarama Karanth Layout Farmers and Property Owners Association, said they will file a curative petition before a five-judge SC bench.
Preliminary notification
Though the BDA had issued a preliminary notification for the land in 17 villages in North Bengaluru in 2008, the project did not take off owing to over 15,000 objections from landowners. Between 2008 and 2014, a total of 703.2 acres was denotified under BJP and Congress governments. In 2015, Karnataka HC quashed the acquisition notification, which the BDA challenged in the SC.
The BDA also issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) to landowners for over 1,200 acres, allowing them to convert agricultural land for residential purposes, and had also given NOCs to several gated communities and private layouts between 2015 and 2018.
“The BDA gave the NOCs for conversion of land use and development on these lands after the 2015 High Court order, but suppressed this information from the Supreme Court when they challenged the High Court order,” Nanjundappa alleged.
Over 50 layouts developed
He said over 50 revenue layouts have developed in the notified area between 2008 and now, and the BBMP and other agencies have even provided services, and landlords are paying property tax. “There are more than 8,000 houses in the notified area. We don’t understand the rationale of the BDA acquiring houses, demolishing them and forming sites to meet the housing needs of the city,” he said.
Senior BDA officials tend to agree. “Acquiring these lands that have already been developed, denotified or given NOC by the BDA will be difficult. Leaving all these out, we may get only parcels of non- contiguous land,” an official in land acquisition department with the BDA said.
Senior officials said the final notification had been issued for all of 3,546 acres in line with the SC order and the court would be appraised of the practical difficulties in implementing its order in due time.