Observing that the State government has modified conditions of grant of land for Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Trust prima facie for “overreaching” court’s earlier order, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, to explain this conduct.
For other purposes
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued the direction while hearing a PIL petition filed in 2019 by Kavitha and four others. The petitioners had complained that the trust had used the land, situated at Kasavanahalli in Varthur hobli in the city granted to it way back in September 2000, for the purposes other than specified in the terms and conditions of the grant.
In response to the court’s direction issued in January 2020 to verify whether the trust had violated conditions of the grant, the State government, after several adjournments granted by the court, submitted a report on February 22, 2021, indicating violations based on inspection of the land.
The inspection report alleged that “instead of constructing superspeciality hospital, houses for poor widows, etc., the trust is running an engineering college on the property.” Following this, the court on April 23, 2021, directed the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban district, to initiate appropriate action against the trust in accordance with the law. The court had also clarified that no action should be initiated without giving an opportunity of hearing to the trust.
Modified conditions
However, the government on April 29, 2021 modified the conditions imposed in the original grant order by allowing the trust to use the granted land even for educational purposes.
Taking serious exception to this conduct of the government, the court said modifying the conditions of the grant without taking the leave of the court and sans referring to the court’s direction to the Deputy Commissioner, prima facie amounts to “overreaching” the court’s April 23 order.
