The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday questioned the conduct of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) demolishing only five illegally constructed religious structures even after identifying 277 such structures built after September 29, 2009, the cut-off date set by the apex court for preventing such constructions.
“Shockingly, as per the affidavit filed on August 10, 2021, it has been stated that only five of such illegal structures have been demolished so far...” the court observed.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice N.S. Sanjay Gowda made these observations during the hearing of PIL petitions initiated suo motu by the court to monitor implementation of apex court’s 2009 and 2010 directions to prevent illegal construction of religious structures on public land.
Even the BBMP has not taken any step to relocate 105 illegal structures, among the religious structures built prior to the cut-off date of 2009, which were identified for relocation based on the guidelines of the apex court, the Bench observed.
The Bench also noted that the affidavit filed by the Chief Commissioner of the BBMP is silent on the outer limit for demolition of all the 277 illegal structures as well as for relocating 105 illegal structures.
Though the affidavit states that there are disputes over another 379 religious structures on whether they are built on public or private lands, the Bench said that the affidavit has not set any deadline for completing the process of verification. The Bench adjourned further hearing till September second week while directing the Chief Commissioner to file better affidavit fixing timeline.
