Decades After Thalikote Applicants Paid Money On Promise Of Plots, Karnataka HC Orders Council To Decide Their Plea Within Six Months

The petitioners alleged that the Town Municipal Council, Thalikote (formerly the Gram Panchayat), collected money from them between 1958 and 1971 on the assurance that residential plots would be allotted to them.

Acquisition proceedings concerning the proposed layout were quashed in W.P. No. 23180 of 1990; the ensuing appeal was disposed of on the basis of a joint memo.

The petitioners later made representations seeking plots, including a representation dated 26 July 2021 and a further representation dated 5 February 2025.

The Council objected that it could not form a layout and that rival lists of applicants claimed to have paid money.

The petitioners sought, among other relief, a direction to allot plots.

The Court exercised its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, as invoked in the petition, and directed the authority to consider the representations in accordance with law.

It applied no specific statutory provision or precedent in its reasoning.

The Court’s stated principle was that a positive direction to allot plots was not appropriate without material showing that converted land and sites were available; the authority could, however, be required to make and communicate a decision on the representations after verifying its records.

The Court declined to direct allotment because the alleged payments were made decades earlier and the record did not establish that converted land or available plots existed.

The Council’s objections—including the quashing of the acquisition proceedings and the existence of rival claims—also underscored the need for verification rather than an immediate allotment order.

However, given the petitioners’ representations and the Council’s failure to respond, the Court considered it just to require the Council to examine those representations against its records and issue a decision.

It issued a mandamus directing respondent No. 9, the Town Municipal Council, Thalikote, to consider the Annexure-J representations and the representation dated 5 February 2025 in accordance with law and pass appropriate orders within six months of receiving a copy of the order.

No order was made as to costs.