HC notice to State on regularising encroachments

A petitioner has challenged new laws to regularise illegal occupation of and construction on BDA land

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition questioning the legality of the amendment made to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for regularising certain types of illegal occupation and constructions on land owned by the BDA.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order on a petition filed by Vijayan Menon and four others.

The BDA (Amendment) Act, 2020 “detrimentally affects the residents of Bengaluru” as the new law incentivises land-grabbers to illegally occupy government lands as the said illegal occupation would later on be legalised and regularised

The petitioners have also questioned the legality of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act, which would allow an increase in the floor area ratio for buildings by mere payment of premium charges to the government.

The amendments to the BDA Act and the KTCP Act were made when the petitions questioning Akarama-Scheme of 2014 were pending in the Supreme Court, which had stayed implementation of the scheme, which was introduced by amending the KTCP Act, the petitioners have contended.

The petitioners sought a declaration that the amendments made to regularise the illegalities are violative of Articles 14 (equity before law) and 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India.

Also, the petitioners have contended that amendments were violative of Article 243ZE as no consultations were made with the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee, which is the apex body to plan the Bengaluru metropolitan area.

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