THE GENERAL MANAGER Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE petitions are considered together and disposed of by this common order given the facts and circumstances.

(2.) THE petitioner in W.P. No. 67186/2009 is a Government of India undertaking and therefore, allotted a land to construct the administrative building in land bearing survey No. 166 to the extent of 6098.70 square metres as on 17.12.1984. The possession of land was also delivered to the petitioner and the revenue entries were effected in favour of the petitioner and the petitioner had submitted its building plans for sanction to the concerned authorities. But the same was not sanctioned as it was discovered that there was no approach road to the land and therefore, the plans were not sanctioned. The petitioner, hence approached the respondents 1 to 3 to provide an approach road to the land allotted to the petitioner. The Urban Development Authority in turn informed the Secretary of the Urban Development, forwarding the request of the petitioner. No steps were taken in this direction and ultimately this delay resulted in the petitioner not abiding by the conditions of allotment, one of which was that the building in question was to be erected within a particular time frame and that having elapsed, the allotment was cancelled.

(3.) THOUGH statement of objections are filed by the Government Advocate seeking to justify the action of the respondents, given the above circumstances, it is evident that there is no want of diligence on the part of the petitioners, which would have enabled the respondent -authority to invoke the default clause under the allotment conditions in revoking the allotment. As the delay was only on account of the plans for the building not having been sanctioned and that being on account of the absence of a road, which in the first place was the duty and responsibility of the authority to have formed before making allotment of the sites in question, it cannot be said that the authority was justified in canceling the allotment on the footing that there has been default in not putting up construction in time.