Karnataka HC grants govt time to report compliance in recovery of land allegedly encroached by H D Kumaraswamy, others

The high court granted time to the Congress government on September 19 to report on the compliance with a Lokayukta order of August 5, 2014.

The state was granted time in the course of hearing a contempt of court petition filed by the NGO Samaj Parivartana Samudaya in 2020 against the government’s failure to abide by an undertaking given to the high court to recover government land that was allegedly grabbed in Kethiganahalli.

Earlier, on September 11, the high court had initially sought the presence of the state chief secretary and top officials for the failure in compliance but withdrew the order after the state advocate general appeared in court and gave an assurance of addressing the issue.

The high court has granted the advocate general time till October 24 to revert on adherence to a compliance report dated May 30, 2023, that was presented earlier in the high court.

“Learned Advocate General seeks a short accommodation to go through the entire material available on record inclusive of the compliance report and Annexures R1 to R3 and the material documents and contents from Page Nos.29 to 37 in order to respond to this contempt proceeding initiated by the complainant against the respondents / accused,” a division bench of the high court said.

In 2014, the Karnataka Lokayukta had sought a report from local authorities on the land records in Kethiganahalli village based on a land-grabbing complaint filed by former Mandya MP G Madegowda. Kumaraswamy, a close relative and former MLA D C Thamanna, and Kumaraswamy’s aunt were named and accused of grabbing government land with a market value of over Rs 130 crore at the time.

In an order dated August 5, 2014, the Karnataka Lokayukta ordered the recovery of government land if there were no records of grants in favour of private people.

“The Tahsildar himself is one of the persons who has submitted this joint report. It is an admitted fact that these lands bearing ‘sy.nos.7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 19 are the Government lands i.e, gomala. The persons who are found to be in possession of these lands mentioned in Annexure-6 with sketch no.6 claim that they have purchased these lands from private persons and that some of these lands were gifted to them,” the Lokayukta said in 2014 regarding the land records.

The Lokayukta directed a full probe by revenue officials and stated that “if it is found that such grants of land were not there then to take necessary legal steps for the recovery of the possession of the Government land from the encroachers and also to initiate criminal action against the persons found trespassing the land and against the guilty officers/officials of the government”.

After the state government delayed the implementation of the Lokayukta directions of 2014, Samaj Parivartana Samudaya approached the high court with a writ petition. In an order on January 14, 2020, the high court noted a submission of the state attorney general “that the state will comply with and implement the order dated August 5, 2014, passed by the Karnataka Lokayukta within a period of three months” to dispose of the petition.

In December 2020, the NGO filed a civil contempt of court petition against state government officials for failure to comply with the August 5, 2014, directions of the Lokayukta despite the assurances given earlier in the high court.