Bengaluru, Nov 3: The High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on a batch of petitions seeking quashing of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Regularisation of Unauthorised Development or Constructions) Rules, 2014, or the Akrama-Sakrama rules.
“These calculations are based on a random study made in one particular ward of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits. They cannot be applied to buildings located in places outside Bengaluru,” she argued.
The state government, in its additional affidavit filed six months ago, had said that of the 16.75 lakh sites/buildings in Bengaluru, the BBMP had been able to collect tax for only 13.82 lakh sites/buildings.
The remaining 2.93 lakh sites/buildings were estimated as unauthorised. Another counsel for the petitioner argued that the rules violate Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 14 (Right Equality) and 20 (Protection in respect of conviction for offences) of the Constitution.
While a person who has constructed four floors is allowed to regularise his construction, another person is not allowed to construct two more floors on his duplex building.
Hearing adjourned
A division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice R B Budihal, adjourned the hearing to Thursday.
The petitioners — Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development and others — have sought for quashing of the Akrama-Sakrama rules. They have contended that the penalty percentage in the new rules was comparatively less than the one that fixed in the 2007 rules.
Another petitioner, Citizens' Action Forum, has raised the issue of the state government not consulting with the Metropolitan Planning Committee that was established in January 2014 before notifying the Akrama-Sakrama rules.
The Forum had contended that the government was not just regularising building violation but also violation of land use.
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