BENGALURU: After encountering a stumbling block twice, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) can finally go ahead with the auction process of its 134 covered car parking lots at Valagerahalli in Kengeri, which was aborted by flat owners who wanted the facility free of cost. A division bench of the High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ appeal filed by Kailash BDA Flat Owners’ Association.
The court’s single bench had delivered a verdict in BDA’s favour on April 20. The association decided to appeal against it in early May. It obtained a stay against the auction slated for May 23. The stay was vacated by the division bench on Thursday.
BDA Engineer Officer N G Gowdaiah said, “The car park auction process will commence immediately. We were confident of getting a verdict in our favour. Right from the beginning, we made it clear in our notification that the cost of the car parking lot was not included in the flat’s cost. What we were doing was legal.”The verdict will now permit BDA to go ahead with the auction of its closed parking slots at Doddabanahalli, Kengeri and Valagerahalli Phase-IV, Gowdaiah added.
The Authority’s first auction on December 22 of the 144 parking slots spread across 11 blocks of Valagerahalli Phase-III was stalled midway following stiff resistance from the association members.
A total of 18 slots were auctioned. A minimum price of `1,000 per sqft was fixed. Slots of different dimensions were sold for prices ranging between Rs 1.73 lakh and Rs 3.33 lakh.
Ganapathy Hegde, association president said, “I am not in favour of appealing against the verdict in the Supreme Court. Our petition has been dismissed twice and I think we should accept the High Court’s decision. We will have a discussion with all our association members and arrive at a consensus about our next course of action soon.”