K'taka HC castigates BDA over land allotment

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has warned that the manner in which government officials and the system is engaging with citizens, is leading to an explosive situation.

Justice Krishna S Dixit was hearing a petition by B R Hemaprakash and others alleging that despite the Aircraft Employees Co-operative Society forming a housing layout on 130 acres of land, members who have already paid for the sites have not been allotted.

Advocate Nanjunda Reddy, who appeared for the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), submitted that public interest litigation and other writ petitions regarding the issue were pending. The revised plan was yet to be approved by the government.

Before adjourning the case to November 2, in a scathing oral observation, the court said BDA was allotting sites to people of its choice instead of the common public.

The current petition was 10 years old, but the petitioners may “have to take it to their graves,” the court said in a reprimanding tone.

The court said that if such a system existed in Germany or France, the citizens would have taken the government officials, advocates, or anyone to task in public.

Warning the BDA, the court said that the agency can verify the anger of the people by going before them with their faces masked.