High Court clears legal hurdles; Works on the much-delayed Memorial to begin soon

Mysore: The memorial for late actor “Sahasa Simha” Dr. Vishnuvardhan in Mysuru will be built under Police protection as several unauthorised parties have approached the Courts claiming the proposed land for the memorial at Udbur village as theirs. Following this, the Mysuru District Administration has decided to begin the works under Police protection to ward off any threats. 

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Mysuru Tahsildar T. Ramesh Babu said that the government will go ahead with the memorial in coordination with Dr. Vishnuvardhan Pratishtana Trust, the Chairman of which is Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and where Dr. Vishnuvardhan’s wife Bharathi Vishnuvardhan is a Trustee. 

Civil injunction vacated

The Tahsildar said that the Karnataka High Court had vacated a civil injunction issued by a Mysuru Court.  The civil injunction was related to ownership of the six-acre, five guntas of Government land on Survey Number 8 near Udbur Gate on Manandavadi Road. Five acres of the land was sanctioned to the Memorial.

The land is located at Halalu village, Kasaba Hobli and after the Mysuru District Administration allotted the land for the memorial and handed it to the Department of Information and Public Relations, Mahadevamma and Sannappa from the village claimed ownership over the land.

 They approached the Second Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court in Mysuru and sought a stay to the Vishnuvardhan Memorial. The Court issued a civil injunction in favour of Mahadevamma and Sannappa. 

Petition in higher Courts

Meanwhile, Bharathi Vishnuvardhan and fans laid the foundation stone for the Memorial on 6.12.2016, sunk two borewells and laid the foundation for a compound wall too. Works were, however, stopped following the civil injunction.

Later, Tahsildar Ramesh Babu approached the Fourth JMFC Court to vacate the injunction but the Court upheld the injunction order issued by Second JMFC Court and directed both parties to maintain status quo (which prevented further construction).

Ramesh Babu then moved the High Court (Writ Petition 20286/2017) last February. Hearing the case, the High Court vacated the injunction as the opposite parties were absent during the hearing and gave permission to build the Memorial in the originally planned design.

Agricultural land

The land in question comes under 80 acres of government land in Survey Number 8 of Halalu Village. In 1974, the Karnataka Government had granted 74 acres of land to Mahadevamma, Sannappa and 25 others for agricultural purposes. However, the remaining 6-acre-5-guntas land was allegedly occupied and the parties continued agriculture. 

The land tussle began when the State Government allocated five acres of land to Vishnu Memorial and Mahadevamma and Sannappa moved the Courts claiming ownership. “The land belongs to the Government and the allotment was within the legal framework. As per the Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964, Column 94 (4), Government land within 10 kilometres of radius from the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) limits cannot be handed over to private parties or private Trusts,” said Ramesh Babu. 

Land belongs to the  government 

“This land is beyond 8 kilometres from the MCC boundaries and certain private parties had encroached upon the land. Earlier too, the claims of private parties over ownership were rejected by the Bagar Hukum Regularisation Committee. Now the High Court has upheld that it is Government land,” he said and added that as all hurdles have been removed, work on the memorial will start soon. 

Reacting on the developments, Vishnuvardhan’s son-in-law and actor Anirudh told SOM that 90 percent of the architectural plan for the Memorial has been completed and the architects were preparing the rest of the plan. “We are awaiting a meeting with the Principal Secretary of Information Department Pankaj Kumar Pandey to finalise the design,” he said. 

The Government has already sanctioned Rs. 11 crore for the Memorial and of the five acres of land, two acres will be for the Samadhi and the rest of the place will be utilised for a ‘Cinema and Nataka Mantapa’ where upcoming artistes will be trained, he added.