The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday termed as ‘shocking’ the ‘lame excuse’ of a misplaced file cited by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for 18 years of delay in allotting a site to former cricketer Smitha Harikrishna and demanding a whopping ₹77.22 lakh from her as against the price at which BDA allotted sites to a few other sportspersons, whose names were chosen by BDA in its 2008 resolution along with her name.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum made these observations while rejecting an appeal filed by the BDA challenging a single judge’s order of October 2020.
The single judge order had set aside the demand of ₹77.22 lakh made by the BDA after allotting her a site in March 2020 while directing the authority to collect only the price that was prevailing in 2008. It also directed the authority to allot her a site of dimension of 50 ft x 80 ft as was allotted to other persons along with her, as per a resolution passed by the BDA in February 2008, and consider allotting in a well-developed layout, on the lines of sites allotted to others, and at the price prevailing in 2008.
Stating that the BDA could not have asked her to pay an exorbitant price for its lapse of misplacing the file, the Division Bench said that it had no reason to interfere in the earlier order.
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During the pendency of this appeal, the BDA had executed a lease-cum-sale deed in her favour for a price of ₹7.79 lakh after she filed a contempt of court petition against BDA for not registering sale deed within two months as directed by the single bench. In the sale deed, the BDA had incorporated a condition that the execution of deed was subject to outcome of the appeal.
