The Karnataka High Court has restrained the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) from auctioning intermediary sites, based on permission given by the State government, to generate funds in view of the financial crunch amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the court made it clear that this interim order will not interdict auctioning of corner and the commercial sites.
Justice Krishna S. Dixit passed the interim order on a petition filed by Keroji Rao, a 69-year-old ex-servicemen from Muthyalanagar. The petitioner said that his dream of having a site and house of his own has not come true even 16 years after he applied to the BDA.
The petitioner had applied for a BDA site in 2004 and was allotted one in Arkavathi Layout in 2006. The lease-cum-sale deed was executed in 2007. When the BDA cancelled the allotment in 2016 citing an order of the apex court, the petitioner filed a petition, which is pending in the High Court.
“It is a classic example where honest citizens and that too ex-servicemen will have no choice of getting a site in the usual course of events. The very act of the respondents in the disposal of sites by way of auction under the BDA Rules is aimed at benefiting the privileged section of society, unfortunately, at the cost of the unprivileged,” the petitioner contended.
It has been contended in the petition that the disposal of intermediary residential sites would be contrary to the law as it would go against the interest of thousands of people, including the petitioner, who are waiting from several years for allotment of a residential site. The disposal of residential sites is also against the very objective of the BDA, which has to allot residential sites to deserving persons as per the law.
The petitioner has been justified in having the apprehension that if all the intermediary sites pursuant are auctioned, the adjudication of his petition may become infructuous because of likely creation of unconditional third party interests, the court observed while restraining the BDA from auctioning intermediary sites.