BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court recently ruled that owners of the land on which an apartment complex has been constructed cannot retain any title after they execute sale deeds in respect of the apartment.
The high court said that a statement in the sanctioned plan, “remaining area of the proposed property and remaining area of the owner reserved for”, would not infer that the land owners had retained the property for themselves and could utilise it exclusively and independently of the apartment complex.
Justice NS Sanjay Gowda on April 25 passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Keerthi Harmony Apartment Owners Association at Kalkere in the city, questioning the licence granted by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in favour of the landowners, Hanumantha Reddy and others.
The landowners had applied and secured approval of the building plan for an apartment building that they proposed to construct.
Home Buyers’ Forum welcomes order
“Even if it is assumed that the plan did indicate that an extent of 1,104.40 sq metre had been retained for future development by the land owners, by virtue of the fact that after the plan was approved, the property was conveyed by the erstwhile land owners in favour of the apartment owners, the ownership of the entire property stood transferred collectively to the apartment owners.
Hence the BBMP could not have entertained the plea of the erstwhile land owners who put forth the representation that they had retained an extent of 1,104.40 sq mtr and were entitled to put up a new apartment building on that extent,” the court noted.
The court quashed the approval given by the BBMP, holding it wholly illegal. It observed, “The entire plot measuring 5 acres 16 guntas or 2,35,224 sq ft stood in the ownership of the entire apartment owners collectively, and the erstwhile landowners possessed no title to seek approval of the plan from the BBMP.
The provisions of the Karnataka Apartment Owners Act make it abundantly clear that the entire land on which the building was constructed would form a common area and every apartment owner would have an undivided interest.”
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Home Buyers’ Forum welcomed the high court order, which clearly stated that the common area land ownership belongs to flat owners collectively after the sale deed is executed. “The question arises on home buyers’ mind as to why the BBMP is not doing mutation of land records as per the sale deed to protect land rights of flat owners. We had submitted many requests to the BBMP commissioner and revenue commissioner regarding this issue in 2023 and still BBMP has not fixed the problem. After this order, at least we hope BBMP will do mutation of land records to ensure every flat owner’s land rights get recorded in municipal administration. Without flat owners’ permission, BBMP should not give any approval of any new development or redevelopment if the land belongs to flat owners collectively,” said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar of the forum.