The Supreme Court-appointed committee started accepting documents from owners who had built buildings on land notified for formation of Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Layout of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Monday. The chairperson of the committee, Justice A.V. Chandrashekar, had asked owners of the properties, who had built residential and other buildings prior to August 3, 2018, to submit documents online and offline.
On Monday, the help centre at Government Urdu Primary School, Medi Agrahara, Vaderahalli Panchayat, became functional.
The remaining four centres – a community hall in Somashettyhalli; Government School Byalakere; Dr. Ambedkar community hall at Singanayakanahalli; and BDA head office at Kumara Park West – will be opened in the coming days. The committee has trained more than 40 law students to assist the property owners to submit their documents at the help centres.
Background
The BDA had issued a preliminary notification for formation of the layout on December 30, 2008. It was challenged in the Karnataka High Court, which quashed the preliminary notification on November 26, 2014. The BDA challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court. The SC cancelled the HC order, and directed the BDA to issue final notification for formation of the layout.
The apex court had also appointed a committee, headed by Justice A.V. Chandrashekar, with former DGP of the State Dr. S.T. Ramesh and former BDA commissioner Jayakar Jerome as members, to protect the interest of people who lawfully built houses prior to final notification.
As per the satellite imagery and a BDA study, around 7,500 buildings came up on the notified land between 2008 and 2018.