The law mandates that authorities shall secure possession of the parks and civic amenity sites which are part and parcel of a private approved layout through registered relinquishment deed free of cost, and make the said parks and civic amenity sites available to the public at large.

JUDGMENT :

Sachin Shankar Magadum, J.

The captioned writ petition is filed in the nature of public interest litigation seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus to declare the site earmarked as a civic amenity site and the same may be restored to current status by demolishing the illegal structures put up in the civic amenity site.

2. The grievance in the present public interest litigation is that the respondent No.5 which is a House Building Co-operative Society Limited has formed a private layout for its members in Sy. Nos.377/2, 377/3, 377/4, 377/5, 377/6, 376/1, 372/2, 376/3, 375/1, 375/2, 374/1, 359/1 and 359/2 of Marrenahalli Village, Kempapura Agrahara, Kasaba Hobli, Bangalore North Taluk. The petitioner claim that the layout plan submitted by respondent No.5 for approval prescribed the lands earmarked for playground and also for civic amenity site. The petitioner claim that both park and civic amenity site measure to an extent of 1 acre out of total 20 acres where the layout is developed. The petitioner contend that the respondent No.5 has formed a residential layout and thereafter sites have been distributed to its members and the residents residing in the said layout are utilizing the portion earmarked as park and civic amenity site for several years.

3. The petitioner has specifically alleged that though respondent No.5 can utilize only 50% of the entire layout for formation of residential sites, however, respondent No.5 has exceeded the said limit and has formed sites to an extent of 62% of the total area. The petitioner has specifically claimed that the area notified as park and civic amenity site has been sold by the respondent No.5 and therefore the entire layout is utilized for residential purpose thereby depriving open lung space for the residents of the said layout. On these set of grounds, the present writ petition is filed.

4. This Court vide order dtd. 22/7/2021 directed the respondent Nos.2 and 3 to conduct a joint survey and to place the report before this Court. The respondents having conducted a joint survey submitted a report on 13/8/2021. This Court having perused the joint survey report found that certain violations of sanctioned layout plan were indicated in the joint survey report. Having perused the joint survey report, this Court directed the respondent Nos.2 and 3 to file affidavits indicating what steps would be taken against the illegalities which are noted in the joint survey report. This Court also directed the authorities to indicate timeline within which appropriate action would be initiated against the encroachers.

5. Pursuant to the direction issued by this Court, the respondent No.2 has filed an affidavit dtd. 6/9/2021 in compliance of the order dtd. 13/8/2021. Paragraph 6 of the affidavit would be relevant and the same is culled out as under:

"6. I humbly submit that pursuant to the directions of this Hon'ble Court, meeting of the Engineer Member, the Executive Engineer and Assistant Executive Engineer, West Division of the BDA was convened on 23/8/2021 and discussed about the steps to be taken by the authority for removal of encroachment in the park and CA site in question. The Bengaluru Development Authority will take appropriate action for removal of unauthorized encroachments made on the area of Park and the CA site in question by invoking Sec. 33 of the Bengaluru Development Authority Act and will make every attempt to remove the unauthorized encroachments within a period of six months subject to the interventions of the court if any."

6. We have examined the affidavit filed by the Commissioner of Bengaluru Development Authority. At paragraph 6, the Commissioner has given an undertaking that action would be taken to remove all unauthorized encroachments within a period of six months. Having taken note of the said undertaking, we direct the respondent No.2 to act upon the joint survey report and remove all encroachments forthwith as indicated in the joint survey report. However, we are no