BENGALURU: The state government has published draft rules to levy penalty on jurisdictional officers of municipalities and municipal corporations across the state, for their failure to prevent unauthorised constructions.
Copies of the two separate draft rules published on October 3, 2019, under the Karnataka Municipalities and Karnataka Municipal Corporation Rules, 2019, were submitted to the Karnataka High Court on Thursday in response to a PIL filed by advocate S Umapathi.
The petitioner urged the court to issue directives to prescribe punishment for officials of civic bodies, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), for failing to prevent unauthorised constructions under the Karnataka Municipalities Act and Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, as there is no such provision in law.
The division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice SR Krishna Kumar adjourned the hearing, while asking Umapathi to file objections as he pointed out that the state government has prescribed only penalty and not punishment to the erring officials.
According to the draft rules published in the official gazette on October 3, 2019, draft notification will be taken into consideration after 30 days from the date of publication in the gazette, after receiving objections, if any, from the public. The payment of penalty by the jurisdictional officer under these rules does not mean that the building plan is regularised, the draft rules added.
Penalty for municipality officials
For the first instance, the erring official will be levied a penalty of not less than Rs 10,000 but not more than Rs 25,000.
For the second instance, the official will be levied a fine of not less than Rs 25,000 but not more than Rs 50,000
For third and every subsequent instance, the Commissioner of Chief Officer should initiate further proceedings under Section 342 of the Act, depending upon the gravity of the violation
Penalty for corporation officials
In the first instance, erring officials will be levied a penalty of not less Rs 25,000 but not more than Rs 50,000
In the second instance, the official will be levied a penalty of not less than Rs 50,000 but not more than Rs 1 lakh
For third and every subsequent instance, the Commissioner will initiate further proceedings under Section 90 of KMC Act, depending upon the negligence or misconduct of violation