After 42 years, BDA gets nod to acquire land in HRBR Layout

BENGALURU: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to go ahead with the acquisition of 3 acres and 23 guntas of land at HRBR Layout, valued at around Rs 70 crore. The BDA has been waiting for 42 years to take possession of this property on Banaswadi Main Road from a family that refused to part with it and dragged the agency to both the High Court and the Supreme Court.

“It is a momentous judgment. The BDA has already developed a layout here in the past, leaving out this portion due to litigation. We left it untouched since 1980 and developed our layout with properties acquired from others. Now, we can develop up to 35 sites of 40x60 sqft dimension on this property, thanks to the ruling.

We will probably hand it over to the special category site allottees like sportspersons or award winners who have been waiting for 10 to 15 years to get a promised site from us,” G Kumar, Executive Engineer, BDA North Division, told The New Indian Express. “Many who lost out on their sites in Arkavathy Layout due to denotification orders await alternative sites and they could also be provided sites here,” he added. While the corner sites formed from the layout would be auctioned, the intermediate ones would be allotted.

Giving details, the official said that the BDA had notified the property of Narayan Reddy (Survey No. 345) for preliminary acquisition in 1977 and had issued the final notification in 1980. “The family took the BDA to court and filed a case in 1984. In its verdict in 1988, the court had ruled in favour of the acquisition. BDA deposited a sum of Rs 7 lakh for the property with the court and wanted to go ahead with it.”

The family filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2014. The BDA filed a writ appeal in 2017 and the court ruled in favour of BDA on May 24, 2022.“Reddy’s children - Rama Reddy, Lokesh Reddy and Anupama - filed a case in the Supreme Court and the jury upheld the HC verdict issued  two months ago in favour of BDA,” Kumar said.

Some temporary buildings have come up at the place over the decades and they would be demolished to make way for creating sites. “The family would be handed over Rs 12 lakh as compensation which would include 15 per cent interest amount accumulated over the years,” he added.