- End to 14-year Bangalore Palace Road widening saga?
- Apex Court directs Karnataka Government to pay TDR as per market value, within six weeks, for acquiring 15.39 acres of Bangalore Palace land for widening Ballari Road and Jayamahal Road
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Karnataka Government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday, to issue Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) as per the Karnataka Stamp Act to the legal heir of the late scion of Mysore Royal Family Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar for the proposed acquisition of the land of Bangalore Palace Grounds for the widening of Ballari Road and Jayamahal Road.
Hearing a batch of contempt petitions, a Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Aravind Kumar reprimanded the State and its authorities, for deliberately dragging its feet for so long and making umpteen bids against following the orders passed by this Court in the past.
As the State pleaded financial hardships, the SC Bench, however, said, “The State Government cannot now retrace its steps in this regard and determine the value of the subject property at its whims or fancies or on any imaginary value for issuance of TDR.”
The State Government pleaded that if the TDR certificate is to be issued as per TDR rules for the said extent of 15.39 acres of land, it would result in 13,91,742 sq. feet of additional built-up area constructible in the city of Bengaluru and approximately it would be equivalent to the notional value of Rs. 1,396 crore after deducting 60 percent of the guidance value.
The Bench pointed out that the State Government itself has considered the market value as per guidance value at Rs. 2,70,000 per sq. metre fixed under Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 but has adopted 0.4 times the said value to calculate the TDR for the reason that the Bangalore Palace falls within agricultural zone, which cannot be market value under TDR rules.
“No material whatsoever has been placed by the State to depict that the subject land is to be construed as falling within agricultural zone. The subject property was utilised as a private residence of the then Maharaja of Mysore for a long number of years and it is situated in the heart of the city of Bengaluru. There cannot be any cavil to the fact that TDR is required to be issued as per TDR Rules,” the Bench said.
What is TDR?
Transferable Development Rights (TDR) is an innovative concept that refers to the grant of ‘certificate’ allowing a land loser to have additional built-up area in lieu of land relinquished or surrendered by him to the Government for public purposes such as road widening, new road construction or amenities. In the case of Bangalore Palace, the Government wanted a part of the Palace land, 15.39 acres for road widening.
The Government, instead of giving money to the land losers, issues a TDR certificate which the land loser can then sell to a builder who wants to add more built-up area to his building.
This means that the Royal Family can sell their TDR certificates, estimated about 3 lakh square metres or 32 lakh square feet, to builders who are looking to increase their buildings’ floor area beyond what they were initially allowed.
This post was published on December 13, 2024 6:44 pm