FIROZ.T.TOTANAWALA
THE BANGALORE METRO REPORTER
THE SUPREME COURT V/S A VILLAGE ACCOUNTANT
VILLAGE ACCOUNTANT VIOLATES SUPREME COURT ORDER,
KIADB ACQUIRES LANDS IN KENGERI VIOLATING SUPREME COURT STAY
They say that the Law is Supreme and that no body is above the Law, yet there are many Public servants who not only think but also act above the Law. We bring to you a more bizarre incident of taking the Democracy for a ride. It features a Village Accountant and Revenue Inspector in Kengeri, who boldly effected a change in Khata and Mutation of about 4 acres of lands in Kengeri despite the “stay” by the Supreme Court. This incident throws much light on the machinations of the revenue officials and the officials of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board and their ‘who cares’ attitude.
THE SUBJECT
The case pertains to lands in Survey numbers 128/1, 128/2A, 128/2B, and other lands proposed for acquisition by KIADB. In 1992, the KIADB had issued preliminary Notifications to acquire certain lands in Kengeri for establishing Industries. The owners of the lands in Survey Numbers 128/1, 128/2A, etc., filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the acquisition. The high court in 1993 disposed the writ petition after the submission of the Government, that it would not acquire the lands under emergency provisions and the High Court had directed the petitioners to submit their objections to the land acquisition.
Acting on the directions, the petitioners filed their objections and the Land Acquisition Officer had recommended the acquisition be dropped. But the KIADB officials were not prepared to accept the recommendations of the LAO.
FINAL TRY
The KIADB further issued a final notification for acquiring the land, and in this final notification, it stated that the lands are required for KSRTC workshop and for the residential quarters for KSRTC employees.
The land owners again challenged it in the high court.
In 2000, the single judge of the High Court allowed the writ petition and held that the Government has not considered the objections of the land owners and the recommendations of the LAO and the KIADB officials issued the final notification without application of mind. Moreover, there were serious discrepancies in the preliminary notification and the final notification.
Interestingly, the KIADB did not file the appeal against this single judge order. Rather, the KSRTC, which suddenly found place in the final notifications, filed the writ appeal. The division bench in 2003 set aside the order of the single judge and allowed the appeals. The bench held that it was not necessary to state the purpose for which the beneficiary uses the acquired land. This would mean that, once the KSRTC gets the lands from KIADB, it could damn well use it for any purpose.
Quite natural, the land owners filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in 2003 against the orders of the division bench. The Supreme Court after hearing the matter admitted the Special Leave Petition and issued a “stay” against the orders of the division bench in 2004. Later, in 2005, the Supreme Court extended the stay but, what happened then is really shocking.
EXTRA ORDINARY POWER
On 25-09-2006, the Government through its Industries and Commerce Secretariat issued an extraordinary Gazette Notification proclaiming that the lands have been acquired for KIADB as per modifications. This implies that the Government had exercised the emergency powers to acquire the lands. In fact, the extraordinary Gazette Notification was a clear case of violation of the Supreme Court order and since it was a low key affair it did not receive much publicity too.
Then, out of blue, the Village Accountant of Kengeri suddenly came into the scene on 16.07.2007. Acting under the pressure, he put up a file for effecting the change of Khata and the Mutation for the disputed lands. Being the grass root official, he knew the legal battle in respect of the lands and moreover he was the custodian of land records in the village. The Village Accountant was also aware of the Supreme Court order as well.
THE SUPREME CHANGES
Yet, he put up the file for change of Khata and Mutation to the Revenue Inspector who is the competent official to do the necessary changes. The Village Accountant had based his proposals on the extraordinary gazette dated 25.9.2006 and asked for the orders to effect the change of mutation. However, he put up the file for orders to effect the changes in the Khata and Mutation on 16.7.2007, after almost 10 long months of issue of the extra ordinary gazette.
Since the acquisition was proclaimed through an extraordinary gazette, the Village Accountant should have acted immediately. In stead, he waited for more than 10 months to initiate action on the gazette notification. The reason for this is very simple. The Village Accountant was well aware of the Supreme Court ‘Stay’ which was still effective and did not want to risk initiating the actions immediately.
ALL IN A DAY
But later, things changed and the Village Accountant displayed his guts. He took the Law into his own hands and mocked the Supreme Court order. He boldly put up the file for effecting the change of Khata and Mutation to the Revenue Inspector who without caring for anything in the world simply accepted the proposal and ordered for effecting the necessary changes in the land records, on the same day, that is 16.7.2007.
In one go, all the lands whose acquisition was “stayed” by the Supreme Court, got transferred to the KIADB in the revenue records, on the basis of the extraordinary Gazette Notification issued by the Government in September 2006, in blatant violation of the supreme court “stay”.
STRONG BACK BONE
The Village Accountant and the Revenue Inspector successfully ganged up to play mischief on the Supreme Court ‘stay’ by proposing, accepting and effecting the change in mutation- all in one day. It is simply incomprehensible that these two petty officials would dare to mock at the Supreme Court order unless they have the support of the higher ups and politicians in power. Even after the change in mutation, effecting the gross violation of the Supreme Court order, no senior revenue official bothered to take any action against this duo.
Of course, the senior officials of the Revenue department too cared a damn for the Supreme Court order. There are a lot of senior officials involved in the process. There is the special DC (Revenue), Special DC, KIADB, special Land Acquisition Officer and above all the Revenue Secretary. The special DC (Revenue), special DC KIADB, were all parties in the Special Leave Petition in the supreme court. They can not feign ignorance of the SC order as they have been represented in the court proceedings. But still, they issued extraordinary gazette notification in 2006 acquiring the lands and despite the SC order which had directed that the statuesque be maintained.
WHO IS SUPREME?
And what does the entire episode indicate? It simply means that the Village Accountant and the Revenue Inspector enjoy superior and supreme powers than the Supreme Court in India. Need there be any other explanation or conclusions.
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