BENGALURU: Any development authority or the state govt can’t insist it won’t allow a landowner to develop his land when it hasn’t issued any notification to acquire said land, the Kalaburagi bench of Karnataka high court said while dismissing a writ appeal filed by the urban development department and the deputy commissioner of Vijayapura district.
Mahaveer and Anil had approached the Vijayapura Urban Development Authority, seeking approval for the plan of a layout they wanted to develop on their lands. As the same wasn’t acted upon, they moved the high court. On July 6, 2023, a single-judge bench allowed their petition and directed the authority to consider their application.
The order was challenged by the urban development department and Vijayapura DC. They contended that the lands of the petitioners were part of a proposed development scheme (a residential layout) prepared by the authority in Aug 2010 under Sections 17(1) and 17(3) of the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities Act, 1987.
The landowners argued that the scheme had lapsed and in the absence of any notification under Section 19 of the Act, there was no bar on transferring the property. Both contentions were upheld by the single bench.
After perusing the materials on record, a division bench comprising Justice R Devdas and Justice G Basavaraja pointed out that though the lapsing of a scheme under the Act has to be issued in a declaration by the govt, 14 years have passed since the issuance of notification pertaining to the proposal of the scheme.
The bench also observed that no preliminary notification was issued for acquiring the land in question. “There can be no cavil to the argument that the state, while exercising its eminent domain power, has all the liberty to issue a notification for acquisition and proceed in accordance with the law. However, even before a preliminary notification is issued, the state can’t contend that the authority shouldn’t permit the development of lands at the hands of the owners,” the bench added.
“A right would arise for the authority to decline such an application only if a preliminary notification is duly published for acquisition of the lands for the formation of a scheme or a layout,” the division bench further observed while rejecting the writ appeal.
