The Karnataka High Court has ordered BDA to keep Karanth Layout as it is

The site allocation procedure for the Dr. Shivarama Karanth Layout is scheduled to begin on January 25, as stated by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. On Thursday, the Karnataka High Court issued a ruling upholding the current situation.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) or any other state agency was ordered by the court to hold off on sending out notices seeking applications for site allocation until further directives.

Shivakumar said on Wednesday that 9,500 sites will be reserved for farmers who gave up their land for the layout development, while 10,000 sites would be made available to the general public.

The court declared that any further actions, with the exception of layout development, would, if allowed to proceed, prima facie compromise the rights of the parties who were wronged.

As a result, the court decided that it was acceptable to impose a status quo, which essentially means that the state cannot publish a notice inviting applications for the allocation of layout sites without the court’s approval. The court said in the temporary ruling that “development activities shall continue, subject to the outcome of the present proceedings.”

After discussing the preliminary notification from 2008 and the final notification from 2018 regarding the acquisition of land for the formation of the layout and other matters with Advocate General Shashikiran Shetty and the appellants’ counsel, a special division bench consisting of Justices Krishna S. Dixit and Justice M. Nagaprasanna issued the interim order.

The appellants’ and petitioners’ attorneys claimed that their complaints had not been addressed and cited a number of petitions pertaining to the parties’ rights that were still under consideration. The BDA’s attorney said that the BDA had informed the three-member committee, led by retired High Court judge Justice A V Chandrashekar, to submit all papers to be brought before the High Court in accordance with the Supreme Court’s (SC) directive. The committee has not turned in the documents or records in spite of this. The attorney said that the group has the data under lock and key.

In order to make sure that the records were not changed, manipulated, or tampered with, the division bench ordered that the BDA install a second lock in the presence of the HC Registrar General in addition to the one that was previously installed by the committee. The committee shut up the premises without sending the records as instructed by the SC, hence the court ordered that the exercise be conducted only on that basis.

In 2018, the Supreme Court established a three-person committee to supervise issues that arose during the layout’s construction. The group’s members were Justice Chandrashekar, former BDA commissioner Jayakar Jerome, and former DGP S T Ramesh.

The committee’s mandate came to an end on December 31, 2023, and reports had been filed sporadically. While Jerome and Ramesh suggested that the committee continue its work for a further six months, Justice Chandrashekar suggested to the SC that the committee be dissolved. The SC subsequently sent the case to the HC and requested that in addition to the committee’s membership, it be extended. The appellate court further instructed the harmed parties to file a case with the High Court. In accordance with the SC’s December 12, 2023, ruling, Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale of the Karnataka High Court established the special division bench.