A writ of mandamus cannot be issued where no legal duty exists for the authority to comply, especially concerning sites without approved layouts.

ORAL ORDER

The captioned petition is filed seeking the following reliefs:

"a) Issue writ of Certiorari or any other writ or order or direction, in the nature of writ, setting aside the endorsement issued by the 3^rd respondent in No.PU.HO.KHA.V.C.R:246:2024-25 dated 14.08.2024 is produced as Annexure-D, to this writ petition in the interest of justice and equity.

b) Issue writ of Mandamus or any other writ or order or direction, in the nature of writ, directing the 3^rd respondent to issue e-katha and katha extract in respect of site bearing Town Panchayat katha/assessment No.1900/GA38 measuring east to west 52 feet north to south 30 feet, situated at S.Rudramurthy Badavane, Holalkere Town, in the interest of justice and equity."

2. The petitioner has purchased a residential site bearing Town Panchayat Assessment No.1900/GA38 measuring east-west 52 feet and north-south 30 feet situated at S.Rudramurthy Badavane, Holalkere Town, for valuable sale consideration under a registered sale deed dated 29.11.2013. The petitioner asserts that manual khata was issued by the local authority as evidenced by Annexures-A and B. The petitioner further contends that he has been regularly paying property tax in respect of the said residential sites, and the SAS Form for the year 2021-

22 evidences the same at Annexure-C.

3. The petitioner submitted an application before respondent No.3 seeking issuance of e-khata in respect of the petition schedule property by enclosing the title deed, conversion order, and tax paid receipts. However, respondent No.3 rejected the application vide endorsement dated 14.08.2024, citing reliance on the circulars issued by respondent Nos.1 and 2 dated 22.03.2017 and 05.01.2018 respectively. Aggrieved by the said endorsement, the petitioner has approached this Court seeking quashing of the same and issuance of a writ of mandamus directing respondent No.3 to issue e-khata and khata extract in respect of the petition property.

4. Respondent No.3 – Holalkere Town Municipality has filed objections opposing the petition. It is contended that the impugned endorsement is strictly in conformity with Circular No.7/TTP/2017 dated 22.03.2017 issued by respondent No.1. By referring to the said notification as well as the order passed by the Karnataka Lokayukta in Complaint No.Upa-Lok/B.D.4551/DRE-5, respondent No.3 submits that it was bound to reject the petitioner’s request. It is further submitted that respondent No.3 has made efforts by addressing a letter to the Government seeking directions to enable issuance of e-khata by collecting betterment charges at 10% of the current market value of sites. This representation is placed at Annexure-R4. Respondent No.3 further submits that despite such representation, respondent No.1 issued another Circular to respondent No.2 bearing No.Na.Aa.E.185.Bemapra:2017 dated 21.03.2018 (Annexure-R5), specifically prohibiting issuance of e-khata in respect of plots which do not have layout plan approval from the competent authority.

5. This Court has heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Additional Government Advocate for respondent Nos.1 and 2, and the learned standing counsel for respondent No.3. The Court has also carefully perused the judgments relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner.

6. Before considering the rival submissions, this Court deems it appropriate to advert to the statutory framework. In particular, sub-section (2B) of Section 17 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 is relevant. For ready reference, the said provision is extracted below:

"(2B) The Planning Authority shall ensure the completion of all development works including all infrastructure facilities as mentioned in sub-section (2A) under the supervision of the concerned A