Karnataka HC allows family to alienate property already notified, to treat terminally ill members
Bengaluru, Apr 13: A family living in the city has been allowed by the High Court of Karnataka to alienate a part of their property even though it has already been notified for acquisition.
The Court's exceptional order came as three of the family members are cancer patients who need timely treatment.
Justice Krishna S Dixit in his judgement on March 27 said, "In the exceptional circumstances of this case, denying relief to terminally ailing citizens, especially when their property in question is the only means of holding the body and soul together by securing medical treatment, would render the constitutional guarantee to life a mere farce.
"To put it in the words of late Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court, the Constitution will be nothing more than a 'parchment guarantee'. Therefore, petitioners need to be permitted to alienate or encumber a reasonable portion of the property that is still in the initial process of acquisition so that they can keep their life boat afloat."
Allowing the family to alienate 50 per cent of the property, the HC in its judgment said, "If the petitioners are not permitted to encumber or alienate the subject property which is their only source of income, from which the required medical treatment can be hopefully bought, they may fall prey to the predatory disease of the kind; thus, the long pendency of acquisition process itself would imperil their life unless some 'exit strategy' is worked out within the framework of the law consistent with the requirement of justice of the times, in which petitioners are placed by the conspiracy of circumstances beyond their control."
Five members of the family had approached the HC seeking permission to alienate their property of 2 acres and 3 guntas of land which was notified for acquisition under the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act.
The petition was filed "since the funds are urgently needed for the medical treatment of some of them who are suffering from the hereditary terminal disease i.e., cancer of varying stages."
Ruling in their favour, the HC said, "Where the life of a citizen depends upon a certain property and the same is being taken away in an acquisition process, though lawfully launched, the delayed accomplishment of the said process and the delay that would eventually be brooked in the payment of compensation till such accomplishment happens, in the given circumstances of the case, would metaphorically amount to taking away the 'oxygen mask' from the gasping patient in the Intensive Care Unit."
The five people who approached the court seeking relief are a 72-year-old woman and her four children. The woman and her two sons are suffering from cancer.
The only daughter is taking care of them, and the 2 acre 3 guntas of property was the only source of income for the family.
The counsel for Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) informed the court that the acquisition process was delayed due to disputes with other property owners and could not be speeded up.
The buyers of the property would have the right to claim compensation from KIADB when the acquisiton is complete.
"The buyers/mortgagees shall have right to claim compensation or its enhancement, should acquisition of the property be accomplished in due course and in the case of delayed acquisition, to lay a claim for interest," the HC said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
