Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has scrapped the old 1987 government ruling to exempt nursery lands from possession. The decision was taken after Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed a petition by B. Satyanarayanachar, running Shree Govardhana Nursery Farm on one acre in Kempanahalli Village, Bengaluru. The petitioner said that his nursery land should be exempted from acquisition under the 1987 order for the Shivaram Karanth Layout project in Bengaluru.
The petitioner said that his nursery has been cultivating plants for several years, so the state government should not acquire it. He even appealed to the Justice AV Chandrashekar Committee, formed by the Supreme Court, which reviews similar claims. However, the court observed that although two other nurseries were granted exemptions in similar cases, the committee found Satyanarayanachar’s land vacant and did not recommend exemption for his nursery.
The court ruled that the 1987 order was originally issued in response to a specific request from the Nurserymen Cooperative Society Limited at Lalbagh but has since been overextended for exemptions across the state. Upon reviewing records and Google Earth images, the court found Satyanarayanachar’s land was mostly vacant from 2008 to 2021 and was not registered with the Horticulture Department.
The court has made it clear that the state government and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) need to give compensation to the petitioner. It also urged that the government will have to set up, recognize, and regulate nurseries so that nursery land exemptions have to follow a standardized approach. The court’s decision has shaken nursery owners in Karnataka.
