The High Court of Karnataka has dissolved a three-member committee that was set up in December 2020, by the apex court to verify the legality of buildings put up on the lands notified by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for the formation of Dr. Shivarama Karanth layout.
A special Division Bench comprising Justice Krishna S. Dixit and Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while accepting the recommendation made by the committee’s head, A.V. Chandrashekar, a retired judge of the High Court, who had said that the committee has completed apex court-assigned tasks and necessary formalities are put in place for execution of the findings of the committee.
However, two other members of the committee, Jayakar Jerome (retired IAS officer and former Chairman of BDA) and S.T. Ramesh (retired DG&IGP, Karnataka) wanted the committee to continue for another six months.
The apex court, which was monitoring the tasks undertaken by the committee on its directions, had on December 12, 2023, transferred the matter to the High Court stating that the latter would decide whether the committee is required to be continued or not. Though the committee was initially tasked to examine the legality of constructions, the apex court had later assigned tasks like verifying the process of acquisition of certain lands as well as formation of the layout.
₹18 crore spent
Meanwhile, the Bench noted that nearly ₹18 crore has been spent for the committee’s functioning so far, which included expenses towards salary, proceedings, execution of works and ₹3 crore paid to an agency to preserve and maintain the data of the committee. The cost for implementing the committee’s findings would be ‘zero’ as it would be done by the officers of the BDA, with continuous monitoring by the High Court, the Bench said.
“What is spent is not the money of the Committee, nor the BDA, it is public money. Therefore, we are of the considered view to accept what is expressed by the chairman of the committee to dissolve the committee, as substantive work has already been done by the committee and the execution of it can be done by the BDA on complete monitoring by this Bench,” it was observed by the Bench. The Bench also noted that committee’s tenure expired on December 31 as apex court did not extended its tenure while leaving it to the discretion of the High Court.
Transfer of data
Meanwhile, the Bench directed High Court’s Registrar-General, who was earlier directed to fix additional lock to the committee’s room in BDA’s premises as committee had not transferred its records as per apex court’s order despite expiry of its tenure, to take possession of all the physical and digital records held by the committee.
Also, the Bench directed the court’s registry to transfer all the litigations related to Shivarama Karanth and that it would be transferred before it
