Bengaluru: On Friday December 10, the Karnataka High Court has given Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) three months to take action against unauthorised buildings in the City.
According to sources, a division bench comprising Chief Judge Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said, “Our only effort is to sensitise you and make you aware of what is going on in the City. We would grant you additional time, but action should be seen on the field, not just on paper.” The court was hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that it had filed in 2019 after noticing several illegal buildings across Bengaluru.
The BBMP had previously informed the court that the City has 131,745 unauthorised buildings.
After observing that the BBMP has not taken any concrete step, except conducting a partial survey, in the past two years against illegal constructions, the High Court on October 27 had directed the BBMP Commissioner to take concrete actions, including demolition of identified structures by December first week.
The court has said that the chart given by Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, suggesting that 4,279 buildings had been identified for construction in breach of a sanctioned plan or bylaw, did not indicate a survey of buildings constructed without a sanctioned plan.
The BBMP informed the court on Thursday that they had surveyed 131,745 unauthorised buildings in the City in response to this order.
The BBMP Commissioner informed the court that they had issued notices to 16,286 building owners under Section 313 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, demanding them to submit documents that prove that their buildings were not illegal constructions, and that they had received a response from 1,712 of them.
The BBMP has asked the court for three months to finish the procedure and take action. The court has set a three-month timeframe after taking the submission into consideration.
According to the BBMP’s counsel, a personal affidavit explaining the steps has been taken to identify unauthorised constructions and the action taken on the issue has been filed.
The hearing has been adjourned until March 15, 2022, with Gupta being asked to appear.
