Karnataka High Court Chief Justice grants three months’ time to civic agency to file action-taken report on demolition of illegal properties
BENGALURU:
BBMP has been given a grace period of 3 months by the Karnataka High Court to undertake demolition of properties that have either been constructed by deviating from the sanctioned plan or do not have any sanctioned plan from the civic agency.
Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum ordered BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, who was present in the court’s Hall No 1, to show proof of demolition of properties, adding that the action should be seen on the ‘field’ and not on ‘paper’. The BBMP chief filed a compliance affidavit in this connection.
The Chief Justice said, “When you start demolishing the buildings, only then we will come to know who is involved in these illegal activities. Show us one or two examples.”
Granting three months’ time to BBMP to undertake the demolitions, CJ Awasthi said, “Mr Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commissioner, BBMP, is present in person. The learned counsel to BBMP informs that the personal affidavit has been filed stating that steps have been taken to identify unauthorized constructions and action has been taken in this regard.
“The annexures No. 4 and 5 are statements showing the number of building plans sanctioned in the head office and zonal offices respectively as of 30 June, 2021. So far, 1,31,745 buildings have been surveyed in category 2, out of which notices as per Section 313 of the BBMP Act have been issued to the owners of 16,286 buildings for submitting their documents to show that these buildings are not unauthorized constructions. It is submitted that due proceedings be held and final orders will be passed in accordance with the law, expeditiously,” he said.
BBMP request for time
“Counsel submits that they need three months’ time to show that concrete actions have been taken. Considering the request by counsel for BBMP, we grant three months’ time to BBMP to execute the action-taken plan prepared by them and file the compliance report on the basis of annexures No. 4 and 5,” the CJ added.
What is Category 1 and Category 2
1st Category: Buildings that have plans but which have deviated from such sanctioned plans in construction.
2nd Category: Identification of buildings that have been constructed without obtaining the permission/sanctioned plan of BBMP.
Yet to be surveyed buildings
Buildings yet to be surveyed are 2,019. From the last date of hearing, around 1,272 buildings have been surveyed. In this regard, the earlier scheme of identifying buildings by wardwise teams was modified to surveying 2,000 buildings by every team per month. The constitution of the survey team would continue as per the Official Memorandum dated 09.08.2021, wherein the teams to conduct the survey/identification of the buildings are constituted wardwise, consisting of Tax Inspectors, Revenue Inspectors, Ward Assistant Engineer, Junior Engineer and Out-Sourced Engineer. The team is headed by the Sub-Divisional Assistant Executive Engineer. The Executive Engineer of the respective division monitors the progress of the survey on a daily basis. The Chief Engineer further monitors the progress every week. The Zonal and Joint Commissioners of the respective zones monitor the progress once in a fortnight and the Chief Commissioner reviews the same in the monthly monitoring review programme.
Since 22.10.2021, the Executive Engineer of the division has been given a target of surveying 2,000 buildings within his jurisdiction every month.
The methodology in this category of building is that firstly information is collected from the Revenue Department, BBMP on the properties registered in the Form’B’ Register. Thereafter, such information is shared with the jurisdictional Chief Engineers for conducting propertywise inspection/survey, in order to verify if any buildings have been constructed on such lands falling within the ‘B’ register.
Only 1,712 building owners have replied
Since the last date of hearing on 27.10.2021, 1,31,745 buildings falling within category 2 have been identified and surveyed across the 8 zones. Of these, notices under Section 313 of the BBMP Act have been issued to 16,286 building owners. And of these, BBMP has received 1,712 replies to the notices till 30.11.2021, which is being collated for issuance of provisional orders under Section 248 (1) of the BBMP Act. 75 notices under Section 248(1) of the BBMP Act have further been issued after collating the replies to the notices under Section 313 of the BBMP Act.
BBMP going as per law
BBMP is taking steps to demolish such buildings as per the following procedure under the BBMP Act:
- Notice under Section 313 of the BBMP Act is issued, calling for records from the building owners for purposes of verification, and a minimum time limit of 7 days is provided for the same.
- On verification of the records or on non-supply of records within the prescribed period, notices under Section 248 (1)(ii) of the BBMP Act will be issued seeking information from the owner/builders about the building.
- The responses received will be scrutinised to segregate the building for which a provisional order will have to be issued.
- Based on the response, if found unsatisfactory, steps for issuance of provisional order under Section 248 (2) of the BBMP Act will be taken, followed thereon by issuance of a confirmation order under Section 248(3) of the BBMP Act.
- Finally, demolition will be undertaken under Section 356 of the BBMP Act after giving due notice.
So far, only 3 buildings demolished!
Shockingly, in its report submitted to the High Court, the BBMP said that after complying with the above-established principles of law, three buildings falling within the South zone of BBMP have been demolished between 01.12.2021 and 04.12.2021, since the last date of hearing. “Further, it is submitted that in addition to the above, BBMP is vigilant and in pursuance of its obligatory functions, conducts surveys of buildings encroaching public spaces and other open spaces and after due notice removes such structures and buildings from such public places, including lakes,” the civic agency’s report added.
