Observing that a few people cannot be allowed to hold the local bodies in the State to ransom by getting into properties and dictating their terms, the High Court of Karnataka has said that properties of a local body will have be given on lease or rent only by way of public auction.
“There are a number of municipalities, town panchayats and corporations. They own buildings, shops etc., located in their precincts and controlled by them. There should be uniformity in grant of lease. Such uniformity can come about only when there is transparency in procedure; transparency in procedure can come about only when the properties are put to public auction and every citizen is permitted to participate in the auction,” the court said.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while noting partial auctioning of some of the shops by Arkalgud Town Panchayat in Hassan district while unilaterally extending the lease period in favour of some of the shops.
The provisions of the municipal laws, the court said, have to be so construed so as to keep the individuals or a class interest subordinate to larger public interest. “A few people cannot hold the entire town municipal council to ransom by getting into properties and dictating their terms. Therefore, it is always necessary and desirable that such rights are auctioned out by way of public auction,” the court said while observing that “any direction not to hold auction or to renew the lease will lead to monopoly”.
In case of Arkalgud town municipal council, the court said public property coming under precincts of the council was bartered away on the basis of a circular without public auction. The question of partial auction defeats the very law and the judgments of the High Court on allowing use of public properties for generating revenue of the public authorities.
