High Court grants relief to site owners, petitioners

High Court grants relief to site owners, petitioners

The Hindu

Certain conditions set for site owners to obtain relief

# Site owners have to register themselves with BDA within two months
# They have to pay only the registration fee
# Should apply for allotment of sites within three months

BANGALORE: While disposing of the Arkavathy Layout appeals, the Karnataka High Court on Friday granted relief to site owners and petitioners.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Nauvdip Kumar Sodhi and Justice N. Kumar set certain conditions for the site owners to obtain relief. The Bench said the site owners/writ petitioners should register themselves within two months as applicants for allotment of sites with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) under the BDA (Allotment of Sites) Rules. The BDA, it said, could extend the time by one more month if sufficient cause was shown.

Such petitioners will have to pay only the registration fee and they will not be required to pay the initial deposit. This is so as their sites have been acquired and they have agreed not to receive compensation.

The petitioners, it said, should apply to the BDA for the allotment of sites within three months from Friday (November 25) stating that they are the applicants/petitioners in these writ petitions.

The BDA, in turn, has been directed to treat such applications on priority. Each of such applicants shall be allotted a 30 ft by 40 ft site in Arkavathy Layout at the prevailing allotment prices, subject to the petitioners satisfying the twin BDA conditions.

The BDA rules stipulate that only those who have been settled (domiciled) in Bangalore for ten years or more and those who do not own or possess residential property are eligible for allotment of a BDA site.

The court also directed that if there are no rival claimants for compensation and ownership is not disputed, the BDA shall calculate the compensation and adjust the same towards allotment and call upon them to pay the difference within six months.

To be referred to court

If there are rival claimants, the BDA shall refer them to the civil court under Section 30 of the Land Acquisition Act.

The court said these schemes will be available only to owners who had registered their property before the preliminary notification was issued and it will not be available to general power of attorney holders or agreement holders.

It said the petitioners could also apply to the BDA for dropping acquisition proceedings in areas such as green-belt areas, land containing nurseries, educational, religious or charitable institutions and land on which factories have been set up.