B K SRINTVASAN Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Bangalore was a beautiful city once. It was a city with magic and charm, with elegant avenues, gorgeous flowers, lovely gardens and plentiful spaces. Not now. That was before the invasion of concrete and steel, of soot and smoke, of highrise and the fast buck. Gone are the flowers, gone are the trees, gone are the avenues, gone are the spaces. We are now greated with tall puffing chimneys and monstrous high-rise buildings, both designed to hurt the eye, the environment and the man. But they are thought by many as symbols of progress and modernity. They have come to stay. Perhaps they are necessary. Nostalgic sentiments, we suppose, must yield to modern societal requirements. Smoking Chimneys produce much needed goods. High-rise buildings save much-scarce space. They have a place in the scheme of things. But where, how, to what extent, at what cost, are the questions raised by some aggrieved citizens of Bangalore. They want congestion to be prevented, population density to be controlled, lung spaces to be provided where people can breathe, existing recreational facilities to be preserved and improved, pollution and health hazards to be removed, civic and social amenities to be provided etc. All these require a balanced use of available land. It is with that object that the Mysore Town and Country Planning Act was enacted in 1961 and it is with the interpretation of some of the provisions of that Act that we are concerned in these appeals.

(2.) The problem and the pain have been well brought out by the Chairman of the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission (4th respondent before the High Court) in the Chairman's response to an editorial in a local newspaper. It is extracted in the Additional Statement filed in the High Court by the Writ Petitioners. He says,

(3.) Raj Mahal Vilas Extension is a sparsely developed area of the city of Bangalore which the Bangalore Improvement Trust Board desired to develop under the provisions of the City of Bangalore Improvement Act, 1945. Land was acquired and plots were allotted to several people. A lay-out was prepared and conditions were imposed for construction of houses on the sites. The present appellants as well as the petitioners before the High Court were all of them allottees from the Improvement Trust Board. One of the conditions of allotment was that the sites were not to be sub-divided and not more than one dwelling house was to be constructed on each of the sites. Apparently multistoreyed high-rise buildings were not within the contemplation of either the Improvement Trust Board or the allottees at the time of allotment. However, the petitioners before the High Court were dismayed to find such high-rise buildings coming up in the Raj Mahal Vilas Extension. Apprehending that there was going to be an invasion of the privacy of the residents of the locality, a disturbance of the peace and tranquillity of the residential area, an interference with basic civic amenities consequent on haphazard rise of high-rise buildings, an exposing of the residents to all manner of health hazards and interference with their way of living, a number of residents of the locality submitted a memorandum to the Governor and the Chief Minister of the State to take appropriate action to prevent the construction of high-rise buildings in a residential area such as the Raj Mahal Vilas Extension. There was no response from the authorities. In desperation, some of the persons who submitted the memorandum resorted to 'Public Interest Litigation' and filed the writ petitions out of which the present appeals arise. Their principal complaint was that the Outline Development Plan for Bangalore which had been published in the prescribed manner had been ignored by the authorities in granting permission to the appellants to construct the high-rise buildings. The first of the grounds mentioned in the writ petitions was that permits had been granted to construct eight-floor residential buildings going to a height of 80 feet whereas under the regulations the maximum permissible height of a building was only 55 feet. The inconveniences, discomforts and the hazards to which such a high-rise building in a residential locality would expose the other residents of the locality were explained in the writ petition and writs were sought to quash the permits granted for construction and to restrain the present appellants from constructing the eight-floor buildings and to direct them to demolish the structures already put up. There was also a prayer to require the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission to recommend to the State of Karnataka against the construction of high-rise buildings in any of the existing extensions of Bangalore. Writ Petition No. 3386 of 1981 out of which arises Civil Appeal No. 2780 of 1982 and Writ Petition No. 3387 of 1981 out of which arises Civil Appeal No. 2781 of 1982 were filed on 25-2-1981. In Writ Petition No. 3386 of 1981 an interim order was initially refused by a learned single Judge but on appeal a Division Bench of the High Court granted an interim order restraining the appellants in Civil Appeal No. 2780 of 1982 from raising further construction. However, in the special leave petition filed by the appellants the order of the learned single Judge was restored subject to an undertaking given by the appellants that in the event of the original writ petition being allowed and the construction being required to be pulled down, the appellants will not raise any objection and will not plead the construction during the pendency of the writ petition as a defence to the pulling down of the construction. The order of the Supreme Court was made on 2-6-81. In W. P. No. 3387 of 1981 the High Court made an interim order on 24-7-81 permitting the appellants in Civil Appeal No. 2781 of 1982 to proceed with the construction subject to the appellants giving an undertaking similar to the undertaking given by the appellants in the other connected appeal. We find from the judgment of the High Court that in W. P. No. 3386 of 1981 only excavation work had been done by the time of the filing of the petition and that the work was completed only after the undertaking was given to the Supreme Court. In the other case the ground-floor had been constructed and pillars had been put up for the next floor when the writ petition was filed. The work was completed after the undertaking was given to the Division Bench of the High Court. We may add that again in this Court when the appellants sought interim orders to enable them to complete the construction during the pendency of the present appeals they gave an undertaking that they would complete the construction work of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th floors at their own risk and cost and that they will raise no objection whatever to this Court passing an order for demolition of the said floors if the Court was ultimately inclined to pass such an order and that they would claim no compensation for demolition, if ordered.