The Karnataka High Court on Monday questioned the authorities for not taking action to relocate a temple built in a lake in Kanakapura when a decision was taken to relocate certain government establishments, like Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), from the water body a few years ago.
Observing that a 2009 direction of the apex court did not allow continuation of illegal religious structures built on public land, the court said the apex court had directed State governments to frame a policy on temples built illegally on public land prior to 2009 and act in accordance with the policy for regularisation, relocation or demolition of such structures.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice H.T. Narendra Prasad made these observations during the hearing of a PIL petition filed in 2017 by Ravikumar Kanchanahalli, a social activist. The petitioner had alleged that authorities failed to take action against a structure built illegally on a lake in survey number 505.
The bench directed the jurisdictional tahsildar, who had filed an affidavit about relocation of the APMC and other organisations from the lake, to file another affidavit after considering a satellite map produced by the petitioner showing other constructions on the lake apart from the temple.
In 2003, the government had allotted 16 acres and 29 guntas of the lake area to various public departments saying the water body had lost its characteristic.
In 2012, the court had directed the State not to grant or allot the remaining 20 acres of the lake area for other purposes, but to rejuvenate the water body, which had lost its characteristics owing to stoppage of inflow of water due to constructions on private land in the surroundings.