Relief for Law Minister Gowda as SC sets aside Karnataka HC ruling on misuse of Govt land

In what could be a major relief for the Central Government, the Supreme Court today set aside a 2012 judgment of the Karnataka High Court whereby it had set aside construction permits pertaining to a plot allotted to Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda, and BJP leader DN Jeevaraj..The judgment was pronounced by a Division Bench comprising Justice Madan Lokur and Justice SA Bobde in court room 9..Senior Advocates Basava Prabhu S Patil and TR Andhyarujina appeared for Gowda and Jeevaraj. Advocate EC Vidya Sagar appeared for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, while Advocate SK Kulkarni appeared for Bangalore Development Authority..Advocate Prashant Bhushan had represented Nagalakshmi Bai, the respondent who had filed the petition in the High Court..By way of background, Gowda and Nagaraj had been allotted plots by BDA under the discretionary quota of the Chief Minister. Subsequently, they had allegedly tried to merge their plots to construct a 5-storey building for which permission was denied by the BDA. However, it is claimed that the two went ahead and constructed the building in violation of the terms of their lease-cum-sale agreement..Nagalakshmi Bai had then petitioned the Karnataka High Court making these allegations. By its judgment dated October 19, 2012, the High Court had set aside the permission to construct the building on the plots allotted to Gowda and Jeevaraj. It had also directed the BDA to take action against them for flouting the terms of the agreement..Gowda and Jeevaraj had appealed against the High Court verdict to the Supreme Court, which had granted them interim relief in January 2013..Image taken from here.