Bengaluru: The Karnataka cabinet on Friday dropped its decision to acquire 15 acres of land belonging to the Palace Grounds owned by the Mysuru Royal Family for widening of the traffic-heavy Ballari Road and Jayamahal Road.
The decision is primarily aimed at avoiding paying a whopping Rs 3,017 crore to the royal family in the form of a transferable development rights (TDR) certificate in exchange of 15 acres and 17 guntas land it intended to acquire. The Supreme Court while hearing a contempt petition filed by the royal family members had fixed the value of the TDR and directed the Karnataka government to issue TDR certificates to the owners of the land in six weeks. The next hearing of the case is scheduled next week.
Claiming that the value fixed by the SC makes the acquisition not viable, the Karnataka cabinet in an emergent cabinet meeting decided to drop the proposal. In order to give its decision a legal protection, the cabinet also decided to promulgate an ordinance to empower the state government to reserve with it the rights to withdraw fully or partially from any infrastructure development projects taken up by it or through any court orders.
This effectively meant, the government can go ahead with the acquisition of the Palace Grounds or drop it. "The cabinet decided to drop the acquisition of land decision as issuing TDR amounting to such a huge amount will put a huge financial burden on the exchequer," said Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil after the cabinet meeting.
The cabinet on January 16 had approved the proposal to issue TDR certificate, as the Supreme Court had castigated the state government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for not complying with its earlier order passed on December 10, 2024. The SC had also given a six-week deadline for issuing the TDR certificates fixing Rs 2.83 lakh per square meter on Ballari Road and Rs 2.04 lakh per square meter on Jayamahal Road as the value of the TDR.
"The amount fixed is not just impractical, but also puts the future developmental projects in peril," said Patil.
Background
The government had acquired the entire Palace Grounds enacting the The Mysore Palace (Acquisition and Transfer) Act in 1996. The royal family challenged the Act in the Karnataka High Court which upheld the Act in 1997. Then the family moved the SC which in turn stayed the Act directing both parties to maintain the status quo.
In the meantime, the BBMP in 2006 decided to acquire 15 acres and 17 guntas of land of the Palace Grounds adjoining Ballari Road and Jayamahal Road for a road widening project by providing TDR to the owners. It also built a new compound wall beyond the stretch of land identified for acquisition. But in 2016 the project was dropped. Questioning the state government’s decision, the royal family members went to the Supreme Court. Since then the legal battle has been going on between the two parties.
