BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court upbraided the bureaucratic approach of BDA and BBMP for issuing Transferable Development Rights to the petitioners, who are allottees of Hakku Patras, the land which they have given up four decades ago for the formation of KSRTC Employees Cooperative Society and the Slum Area Development Board.
A perusal of the impugned order, the court said, “gives an impression that it is texted with the mindset of a draftsman of the East India Company, and not by one whose heart is at the right place. A few reasons for denying relief to the petitioners are ridiculous,” Justice Krishna S Dixit said, pulling up the authorities for making the petitioners, who are slum dwellers, shuttle from one place to the other.
He quashed the order dated March 17, 2022, issued by the BDA Commissioner negating the recommendation made by BBMP to issue TDR to the petitioners, and directed the BDA to grant TDR certificates within three months to the petitioners.
“Our Constitution having been founded on human values, the state and its authorities should adopt a humane approach to the problems of those in need of socio-economic aid,” Justice Dixit observed. The court also directed the BDA commissioner to pay each petitioner Rs 1,000 per day which may be recovered from erring officials if delay is brooked in the issue of TDR certificates.
They gave up their land in Sy. No.40 at Marenahalli village in Bengaluru South decades ago based on the assurance of BBMP that some shelter will be provided to them in land Sy. No.17. They were given Hakku Patras and possession certificates in 1979-80.
They had paid an offset price at the rate of Rs 2 per square yard. All their efforts to secure a small site for their houses are in vain. After realising they would never get any site, they opted for the TDR facilities.
“This is the third round of litigation... The petitioners had a rough deal at the hands of both BDA and BBMP, whose conduct does not generate confidence in the mind of the court,” the court observed.