HC pulls up BDA, BBMP for harassing site owner

HC pulls up BDA, BBMP for harassing site owner

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for what it claimed was harassment of a site owner, and levied Rs. 5,000 each on them.

Justice N. Kumar passed the order on a petition by Philomena Menezes.

In her petition, Ms. Menezes had challenged the BDA action in auctioning a site she had purchased in 1991 and also the refusal by the BBMP to register the khata of the site in her name. She said she had purchased the site in Jakkasandra in Koramangala on August 19, 1991.

She later came to know that the BDA had auctioned her site to another personand that he had already started construction of a building. When she approached the BBMP, it said the khata of her site had already been transferred in the name of another person.

Allowing her petition, Justice Kumar observed that the agencies had behaved in an irresponsible manner and for harassing her.

He wondered how the BDA could have auctioned a site which it had already allotted to another person.

The Karnataka High Court on Monday continued a stay it had granted earlier against a lower court order of Bangalore in issuing non-bailable warrant (NBW) against 11 Dutch nationals. The 7th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bangalore, had ordered issue of NBW against the Dutch nationals after two textile companies from Bangalore had complained that the Internet service provider of Netherlands, XS4ALL, in which the Dutch nationals are employed, had carried defamatory articles on the textile industry in India.