Aerial view of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout.
Credit: Special arrangement
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has decided to monitor the issues related to the Bangalore Development Authority’s (BDA) Shivaram Karanth Layout and has also dissolved the committee overseeing these issues until December 31, 2023.
A special division bench comprising Justices Krishna S Dixit and M Nagaprasanna has directed that all litigations concerning the layout or questions raised over the orders passed by the committee from time to time be listed before it on January 29, 2024.
At the hearing, the Advocate General informed the court that an amount of Rs 17,95,10,448 has been spent towards proceedings of the Committee for the execution of the works assigned to it by the Apex Court. This expenditure includes the salaries and Rs 3 crore on an agency to preserve and maintain the data on the system where all the proceedings are stored.
The Apex Court had constituted the three-member committee on December 3, 2020, and in an order dated December 12, 2023, the top court transferred the entire proceedings to the High Court.
The division bench noted that while the chairman of the committee sought the committee’s disbandment, the two members were in favour of continuing it.
“It is said that Rs 3 crore is exclusively spent as a subscription for the last three years for the development and maintenance of the said data. 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,” the division bench of the high court said.
The bench further said,” Advocate General has also placed on record the number of officers that would be involved in the execution of the findings of the committee or take the issue to its logical conclusion. They are the officers of the BDA and it would be monitored by this bench, the cost of which would be ‘zero’. Therefore, in view of the public money close to Rs.18 crore being already spent, it is necessary to put a halt to any further expenditure.”
The bench has also directed the Registrar-General and the Registrar-Computers of the High Court to make an inventory of the records that are on the premises of the committee. The bench has also directed the Registrar-General to communicate to the Secretary-General of the Apex Court for immediate transfer of records that are before the top court in terms of the direction dated December 12, 2023.