A Supreme Court docket bench on Tuesday referred to Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai an interlocutory utility filed by the Karnataka authorities towards a December 2024 apex court docket directive to deposit Transferable Growth Rights to members of the erstwhile royal household of Mysore in a three-decade-old authorized dispute over the Bangalore Palace grounds.
The bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta stated, “Let IA No. 136367/2025 be put up earlier than Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India on administrative facet for acceptable orders.”
The Karnataka authorities moved the brand new utility within the unique Bangalore palace civil dispute circumstances of 1997 after a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court docket rejected the state authorities’s plea to not permit the discharge of TDR value over Rs 3,000 crore to the previous royals till the apex court docket settles the principle dispute over the Bangalore Palace grounds.
The three-judge bench, in the middle of adjudicating contempt petitions filed by the royals towards the non-payment of TDR by the Karnataka authorities, directed the state on December 10, 2024, to deposit TDR for the parts of the Bangalore Palace grounds that had been sought to be acquired for highway growth by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in 2014.
Earlier this month, the Karnataka authorities filed an utility earlier than the three-judge bench, stating that the TDR deposited by the state in compliance with the orders within the contempt petition should not be launched to the previous royals till the disposal of the civil appeals pending earlier than the Supreme Court docket.
The state additionally argued that assessment petitions had been filed for assessment of the Supreme Court docket orders that directed the Karnataka authorities to make the TDR funds to the previous royals.
On Could 22, Justice Aravind Kumar dominated on behalf of the three-judge bench that the state authorities’s concern of not with the ability to recuperate TDR if the civil dispute over the takeover of the Bangalore Palace land by the state is set in favour of the federal government was “not a real apprehension”.
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The Supreme Court docket dominated on Could 22 that the state’s apprehensions “can’t be imported to the orders which have been wilfully disobeyed by contemnors, and situations if any now imposed, for the issuance of TDRs”.
On December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court docket directed the state to pay compensation within the type of TDR on the prevailing market worth to the erstwhile royal household as agreed by the state and ordered by the apex court docket in November 2014 for the acquisition of a 15.36-acre portion out of the 472 acres of the disputed Bangalore palace property for a highway widening mission.
The Supreme Court docket order got here in response to contempt of court docket petitions filed by the late Srikantadatta Wadiyar, the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore, his spouse, Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, and others, concerning the delay within the state’s cost of compensation.
With the market worth of the land sought to be acquired for highway work assessed to be within the vary of Rs 3,014 crore at current, the Congress authorities in Karnataka launched an ordinance on January 29 to withdraw the TDR supply for the Bangalore Palace land.
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“We are attempting to safeguard the curiosity of the state and the property of the state, and we now have already said in nice element that the associated fee beneath dialogue of someplace round Rs 3,000 crore just isn’t acceptable and we now have now launched the ordinance retaining all this in view,” Legislation Minister H Okay Patil stated in February.
The ordinance states that the “monetary impact of the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court docket will probably be grave on the exchequer of the state of Karnataka, and upon the city planning of town of Bengaluru”.
The Supreme Court docket, nevertheless, rejected the Karnataka authorities’s effort to counter the compensation cost and indicated on February 13 that the December 10, 2024, order by a three-judge bench within the contempt pleas was not negotiable.
The Bangalore Palace grounds case timeline
The Bangalore Palace grounds, spanning 472 acres of land, had been acquired by the Karnataka authorities via the passage of the Mysore Palace Switch and Acquisition Act of 1996, which obtained the President’s assent and got here into pressure on November 18, 1996.
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In 1996, the state was to pay Rs 11 crore as compensation for your complete land on the price of Rs 2.30 lakh per acre.
Nonetheless, the acquisition by the state has remained in limbo because the royal household challenged the validity of the acquisition legislation within the Supreme Court docket after the Karnataka Excessive Court docket upheld the legislation on March 31, 1997.
Subsequently, the Karnataka authorities tried to amass 15.36 acres of the palace land for the widening of Jayamahal Highway and Palace Highway in central Bengaluru, spanning a 2-km stretch, and a TDR compensation provision was offered for the acquisition.
The TDR to be paid to the royal household for the acquisition of 15.36 acres of land, equal to 13,91,742 sq ft, on the prevailing steering worth of Rs 2.70 lakh per sq metre, will quantity to Rs 200 crore per acre, totalling Rs 3,014 crore, the state has argued.
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“As soon as TDR is paid, it can’t be regained. It could have an effect on the state’s economic system. We’ve determined to not pay the TDR. Since it’s beneath litigation, there are plenty of issues. The ordinance will empower us to maintain management over the land. The suitable resolution on compensation will probably be taken on the proper time,” Patil said.