In a massive relief for those who have built houses or other buildings on nearly 650 acres of land earmarked for the Bangalore Development Authority’s Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout, the Supreme Court has decided to protect constructions that have come up lawfully on them. In its order on December 3 in connection with an affidavit filed by the BDA Commissioner on November 26, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said its decision to provide some protection against demolition of dwelling houses was justified. 

“The Layout is meant for residential sites and this object of formation of layout would not be frustrated by saving lawfully constructed dwelling houses belonging to poor and middle-income groups,” the court said.

The Layout proposed in 2008 on 3,546 acres and 12 guntas of land was meant to be BDA’s second biggest after the Kempe Gowda Layout. It was supposed to have 18,975 sites spread across 17 villages between 
Doddaballapur and Hesaraghatta, reveal BDA records. Preliminary notification was issued by the BDA to acquire them but it got caught in litigation and no final notification could be issued.

The High Court cancelled the Shivaram Karanth Layout project on September 2, 2015 in the light of numerous cases filed by landowners over the years. BDA took the matter to the Supreme Court.  The SC  on August 3, 2018 gave a green signal to BDA to form the layout.

The court said it was setting up a committee to identify the lawful constructions made in the notified lands. Former Judge of Karnataka High Court, Justice A V Chandrashekhar, would serve as its Chairman while Jayakar Jerome, former BDA Commissioner, and S T Ramesh, former Director General of Police, would serve as its members. “The committee is requested to submit its report before this court preferably within a period of six months from today,” the court said.

It also directed the State government to depute six additional Land Acquisition Officers to the BDA within two weeks. It has asked BDA to file a status report on January 11, and listed the next hearing on January 19.

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