Don’t demolish buildings without sanctioned plan, regularise them if bylaws are not violated: Karnataka HC to BBMP
The court said that property tax with penalty would have to be paid from the date of the unsanctioned construction.
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The order was passed on December 11 by Justice Suraj Govindaraj while disposing of a set of petitions. The Karnataka High Court has ordered the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to consider regularising buildings without a sanctioned plan instead of demolishing them if building bylaws are not violated.
A single-judge bench of Suraj Govindraj, in its order on January 4 while disposing of a set of petitions, said, “More often than not these violations are occurring over small plots which have been purchased by individual citizens by making payment of huge amounts of money from their own personal funds and sometimes by borrowing funds.”
“Since there is no particular violation of the building bylaws as such, I am of the considered opinion that whenever authorities were to pass orders… it would be required for such authorities to look into and pass necessary orders after taking into consideration if there is any violation of the building bylaws and not direct demolition only on account of building sanction not having obtained,” the court noted.
The bench also said if there was no violation of the said bylaws, after collecting the relevant fees, the authorities could regularise the building by issuing a sanctioned plan. Property tax with penalty would also have to be paid from the date of the unsanctioned construction, it said.
The high court also took a serious view of the allegations by some petitioners that there had been collusion by some officials with other parties regarding the properties.
“The chief commissioner would also have to institute necessary enquiry into the same to ascertain the veracity thereof….the officers of the corporation cannot act contrary to the applicable law at the behest of the private party…. The officers of the corporation or the corporation itself cannot be treated as pawns or stooges of private parties and act on their behalf. A statutory organization like the BBMP has been established to serve the interests of the citizens in general and not a few powerful persons,” the court observed.
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