The Congress authorities in Karnataka which launched an ordinance on January 29 to beat the prospect of paying compensation to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore to the erstwhile royal household of Mysore – for the acquisition of 15.35 acre of land on the Bangalore Palace – is weighing new authorized choices after the Supreme Court docket indicated on February 13 that its December 10, 2024, order to pay Transferable Improvement Rights (TDR) at market worth shouldn’t be negotiable.
“We’ve mentioned this topic and it was an elaborate dialogue. We can have discussions with some authorized luminaries additionally and we might be taking a call after we talk about with Delhi attorneys and the advocate common,” Regulation Minister H Ok Patil stated on February 20 after the Palace subject featured on the state cupboard assembly chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
“There isn’t a setback right here as a result of we’ve got our personal place. We try to safeguard the curiosity of the state and the property of the state and we’ve got already acknowledged in nice element that the fee beneath dialogue of someplace round Rs 3,000 crore shouldn’t be acceptable and we’ve got now launched the ordinance preserving all this in view,” the regulation minister stated.
The Karnataka authorities is more likely to file an enchantment in opposition to the SC order of December 10, 2024, to pay the compensation, and imposition of a fantastic, in the midst of contempt of courtroom petitions filed by the members of the erstwhile Mysore royal household.
The Karnataka authorities was directed by the Supreme Court docket on December 10, 2024, to pay compensation within the type of Transferable Improvement Rights on the prevailing market worth to the royal household as agreed by the state and ordered by the SC in November 2014 for the acquisition of a 15.36-acre portion – out of the 472 acres of the disputed Bangalore Palace property – for a road-widening mission.
The Supreme Court docket order got here within the wake of contempt of courtroom petitions filed by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore, the now deceased Srikantadatta Wadiyar, his spouse Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, and others, over the delay within the fee of compensation by the state.
With the market worth of the land sought to be acquired for highway work assessed to be within the vary of Rs 3,014 crore at current, the Congress authorities in Karnataka launched an ordinance on January 29 to withdraw the TDR provide for the Bangalore Palace land.
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The Supreme Court docket, nevertheless, rejected the Karnataka authorities’s effort to counter the compensation fee with the ordinance and indicated on February 13 that the December 10, 2024, order by a three-judge bench within the contempt pleas shouldn’t be negotiable.
“The bodily presence of the alleged contemnors is required. Due to this fact, they’re directed to be bodily current earlier than this Court docket on the following date of listening to,” the SC acknowledged in an order on February 13 when the matter got here up for assessing compliance by the Karnataka authorities.
Earlier on December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court docket had directed the state authorities “to subject the TDR as per the worth” agreed upon earlier “inside six weeks”.
“The instructions issued beneath orders dated: 21.11.2014 and 17.05.2022 shall be complied by the competent authority of BBMP preserving in thoughts the observations made hereinabove inside six weeks from at the moment and compliance affidavit shall be filed inside the stated interval failing which the Commissioner, BBMP and the competent authority for issuance of TDR shall seem in individual earlier than this Court docket for having did not adjust to the orders of this Court docket, to allow this Court docket to cross additional orders,” the SC stated in its December 2024 order.
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Confronted with the prospect of getting to pay a compensation of Rs 3,014 crore within the type of TDR to the erstwhile royals, the Congress authorities launched an ordinance on January 29, 2024, to withdraw the TDR provide for the acquisition of the Palace land.
The ordinance states that the “monetary impact of the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court docket might be grave on the exchequer of the state of Karnataka, and upon the city planning of town of Bengaluru.”
The Bangalore Palace grounds unfold over 472 acres of land was acquired by the Karnataka authorities by way of the passage of the Mysore Palace Switch and Acquisition Act of 1996 which acquired the assent of the President and got here into drive on November 18, 1996. The state was to pay Rs 11 crore as compensation for the whole land on the fee of Rs 2.30 lakh per acre.
Nevertheless, the acquisition by the state has remained in limbo for the reason that royal household challenged the validity of the acquisition regulation within the Supreme Court docket after the Karnataka HC upheld the regulation on March 31, 1997.
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Subsequently, the Karnataka authorities acquired 15.36 acres of the palace land for widening of the Jayamahal Street and the Palace Street over a stretch of two km and a TDR compensation provision was supplied.
The TDR that needs to be paid to the royal household for the acquisition of 15.36 acres of land or 13,91,742 sq ft of land on the prevailing steering worth of Rs 2.70 lakh per sq metre would quantity to Rs 200 crore for each acre and a complete of Rs 3,014 crore, the regulation minister stated final month.
“As soon as TDR is paid it can’t be regained. It will have an effect on the state’s economic system. We’ve determined to not pay the TDR. Since it’s beneath litigation there are lots of issues. The ordinance will empower us to maintain management over the land. The suitable resolution on compensation might be taken on the proper time,” the regulation minister stated final month.
Whereas the Bangalore Palace (Acquisition and Switch) Act 1996, empowered the state authorities to accumulate parts of the palace land for infrastructure growth, the brand new Ordinance reserves the precise of the state to not purchase parts of the Palace land for any mission. The worth of the land within the Ordinance is predicated on estimates made within the 1996 Act.
