BDA’s right over CA sites in private layouts upheld

BDA’s right over CA sites in private layouts upheld
Deccan Herald

The Bangalore Development Authority on Wednesday got a shot in the arm with the Karnataka High Court ruling that areas earmarked for civic amenity purposes (CAPs) in layouts formed by the housing societies, will fall under the category of “open space”.

The Bangalore Development Authority on Wednesday got a shot in the arm with the Karnataka High Court ruling that areas earmarked for civic amenity purposes (CAPs) in layouts formed by the housing societies, will fall under the category of “open space”. Thus, the BDA will have all rights over such areas.

A division bench comprising Justices H L Dattu and A S Bopanna gave this ruling over a dispute among the Bhavani Housing Cooperative Society (BHCS), Appolo Educational Trust (AET) and the BDA.

The court also ruled that BDA need not wait for the execution of relinquish deeds to take over areas earmarked for CAPs in layouts formed after obtaining land from the government via bulk allotment. In reality, such CAP areas in layouts “will always remain with the BDA”, the court held.

However, the new ruling on relinquish deeds is applicable only in those cases where the sale deed executed in favour of the societies, during bulk allotment of land for formation of the layouts, contains the provision that the societies should hand over open space, parks, roads to the BDA.

With this ruling, areas earmarked for CAPs fall under the category of “open space” as defined in the Karnataka Parks, Play Fields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1985. In the BDA Act, “open space” had not been defined.

BHCS had challenged BDA’s allotment of a CAP site in the layout formed by the former at Padmanabhanagar, in favour of the AET in 2003. BHCS had claimed that the BDA did not have any right over CAP sites as these were not open spaces.

While upholding BDA’s action, the court directed BHCS to execute the relinquish deed within 15 days.