In a major relief to Union law Minister DV Sadanand Gowda, the Supreme Court on Friday allowed construction of a residential project in the heart of Bengaluru to go on in a plot allotted to Gowda in August 2006.
The construction came to a standstill three years back when the Karnataka High Court, acting on a PIl quashed the sanction granted by the municipal authorities for the project holding it to be an illegal structure as it was constructed after amalgamating two plots, one belonging to Gowda and another adjacent plot owned by BJP leader DN Jeevaraj.
The bench of Justices Madan B lokur and SA Bobde set aside the HC order and said, “Merely because a building has some deviations from the sanctioned plan, either at the initial stage or later on in the construction, does not necessarily mean that construction is per se illegal unless the deviations are irremediable….”
The Court noted that the plan submitted by the duo was for construction of ground floor and two upper floors for which permission was obtained but the HC erred in treating amalgamation of two plots as violation of the original lease-cum-sale agreement. The order came on a PIl filed by advocate Nagalakshmi Bai who had contended that the two had violated the lease-cum-sale agreement.