BENGALURU: The High Court on Tuesday stayed the construction of two major multi-crore housing projects on Horamavu-Begur Road in the city and issued notice to three construction companies and the CBI.
Hearing a PIL filed by Anil Agarwal, a resident of Byrati village here, a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna ordered the respondents to maintain status quo.
“The respondents --Annabel Builders and Developers Private Limited, DLF Southern Homes Private Limited and M/s Suadela Constructions Private Limited-- are restrained by an order of injunction from creating any third party interest in relation to the disputed property during the pendency of the writ petition,” the bench stated.
The bench issued notice to the chief secretary, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), K M Shiv Kumar, a retired IAS officer who was then BBMP administrator, Bharat Lal Meena, the then BBMP Commissioner, Pradeep Singh Kharola, the then BDA commissioner, and the CBI.
The petitioner urged the court to issue directions to conduct a CBI inquiry into the violation of Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, master plan of Bangalore Development Authority and BBMP building byelaws by the construction companies and collusion of authorities with the builders. The petitioner contended that the local bodies as well as the state allowed the construction companies to build housing projects up to 30 floors as against the permissible four floors as per the road width norms. Presently, the builders have built 19 floors and are trying to complete the project in a hurry, the petitioner added.
The petitioner’s advocate G Prashanth contended that the road connecting Horamavu and Begur is a 3 km stretch and its width is 9.6 mt. This width only permitted construction up to four floors.
The construction companies attempted to get this road widened to 24 mt to construct 30 floors. BBMP widened the road to 24 mt only for 850 mt in 2010 to facilitate the builders, illegally, although the Comprehensive Master Plan-2015 permits only 18 mt, he added. This is totally illegal and the authorities colluded with the builders. Even, BMTF did not take any action against them. Hence the court should direct the CBI to investigate it, he contended.
Court Bars Appointments For a Month
The High Court on Tuesday barred the state government from appointing a chairman or members to the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) for the next one month. Officiating Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna passed an order to this effect. “The matter stands adjourned for one month to enable respondents (state government) to seek instructions.... During pendency of this writ petition, there shall be no further appointment of the chairman or the members of the Karnataka Public Service Commission,” the division bench said.
While hearing a public interest litigation filed by T J Abraham, the division bench refused to give liberty to the state government to appoint the chairman and members to KPSC as it was subject to the outcome of the petition.
Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar informed the court that they have written to the Union government for a common code for appointment of chairman and members to the public service commissions and are awaiting a reply. He appealed to the court to permit the state government to appoint a chairman and members as many vacant posts had to be filled up.