HC grants gift of site
Owning a BDA site is a long and tedious process in Bengaluru, and only a few people are lucky enough to lay their hands on them. A 53-year-old woman, who was allotted the site, almost lost it but for the intervention of the high court. M.Varalakshmi, while applying for the Bangalore Development Authority site under economically weaker section, had not mentioned her date of birth. While her date of birth is July 20, 1958, she had left the specific column in the application blank. She, however, had mentioned her age as 43. Considering her application, the BDA allotted her a site in Arkavathy Layout.
But in 2008, it cancelled the allotment on the ground that the site was allotted wrongly as the applicant was born on October 24, 1961. It said that to get the site under the economically weaker section, the applicant ought to have born prior to December 10, 1959. The applicant approached the court and questioned the cancellation. The court directed the BDA to consider her representation and to take action as per law.
The BDA tried to get her correct date of birth from her primary school records, but failed. It later said that there were no official records to prove her date of birth and cancelled allotment of the site.
The court asked the government to get information from the headmaster of the Government Kannada Lower Primary School, Kondamari in Srinivaspura, Kolar district, where she studied. The government later filed a memo with the relevant documents maintained by the school. The headmaster too was present and submitted that Varalakshmi’s date of birth is, in fact, July 20, 1958.
But the BDA advocate raised another objection, saying the application cannot be considered as it was not signed by the applicant. But the court ruled that such technicalities should be condoned. “Since the date of birth of the applicant is July 20, 1958 and the cut-off date is December 10, 1959, the allotment made by BDA is just and proper,” the court ordered, adding that the allotment of site to Varalakshmi in Arkavathy Layout is valid. The court also directed the BDA to execute necessary deeds in favour of Varalakshmi.
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