BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Vs. KUM MANJULA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal filed by the appellant - BDA is at a very belated stage. As such, an application for condonation of delay is filed on behalf of the appellant. It is interesting to note the grounds submitted in the application to justify the delay.

(2.) Admittedly, the petition was decided by the learned Single Judge way back in the year 2014 and in paragraph No.3 of the application, it is stated that the learned Single Judge passed the order in W.P.No.16383- 16387/2014 on 25/4/2014 and the certified copy of the order of the above writ petition delivered to the appellants counsel on 5/6/2014. Thereafter, the appellant counsel sent the certified copy of the order to the Law Sec. of the BDA on 18/7/2014 which was received by the Law Sec. of the BDA and thereafter placed the file before the Law Officer and the Law Officer after going through the order directed the office to put of the concerned file. Thereafter, on going through the records on 28/7/2014 opined to file appeal against the above order and forwarded the file for the approval of the Commissioner, BDA. The Commissioner, BDA accorded approval for filing appeal on 4/8/2014 and forwarded the file to the Law Sec. for further process."

(3.) The reasons assigned, as referred to by us in the above mentioned paragraphs, only show the casual approach of the appellant. When there was an opinion expressed by the Law Officer, at the first instance, way back in the year 2014, the appellants could have certainly proceeded further and could have filed appeal in this Court. Then it seems that some officer of the Government in the Urban Development Department directed the Commissioner not to file the writ appeal against the order and also sought recall of the files from the panel advocate and then, in the matter, the entire machinery stopped at that stage. Then, after six years, in the year 2022, some private party apprise the Commissioner. Then, the Commissioner called for the records and thought it fit to instruct the Law Officer to file an appeal. It is stated in the application that after acquisition of the land, the BDA has formed the roads and sites and some of the sites were allotted to the public and some allottees were obtained alternative sites in view of the litigations. Now, these facts cannot take place overnight the formation of roads, the allotment of alternate sites. All these acts require some time and it cannot be presumed that the authorities of the BDA were unaware of all these facts and suddenly, by waking up from deep slumber, the authorities got knowledge of the facts. Thus, these facts only show that some of the officers of the BDA act promptly and some of the officers, on instruction from the Urban Development Department, are in the process of filing the appeal that was initiated in the year 2014.