Bengaluru: HC slams authorities for snatching plot allotted to manual scavenger’s widow

The High Court of Karnataka has come to the rescue of a scheduled caste woman whose husband was asphyxiated while cleaning a manhole in northern Bengaluru in 2008.

Admonishing the lack of will and display of apathy towards poor citizens by the authorities, Justice M Nagaprasanna said that it was high time that “the haves stop despoiling the rights of have-nots; the haves, I mean, those who have power.”

The court passed the order on Thursday on a petition filed by Nagamma, a resident of Doddabelavangala in the Doddaballapur taluk. Her husband had died of asphyxiation in 2008 when he was forced to go into a manhole at Yelahanka. Nagamma had first approached the high court in 2011 seeking rehabilitation. After the court’s intervention, she was allotted a plot in 2011-12.

After about nine years of allotment, Nagamma got to know that the plot was taken away by the Doddabelavangala panchayat to build the Nada Kacheri. She once again approached the high court in 2022 after the authorities ignored a series of representations filed by her.

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The Panchayat Development Officer filed his objections stating that the petitioner has no right to a plot because she had “violated” the conditions. It was stated that though the plot was allotted in 2011-12, she did not put up any construction till June 2022.

On the court’s queries, the authorities identified a plot and gave Nagamma possession of the property which contains a house.

“This could have been done without the petitioner knocking at the doors of this court. If it could be done within one week of this court questioning the action, the action could have been taken without such questioning by this court. Therefore, it is the lack of will and display of apathy towards poor citizens by the powers that be,” the court said.

Observing that the state has driven a scheduled caste woman to approach the court for the second time, the bench ordered the payment of Rs 50,000 as cost and an equal amount as litigation cost.

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Justice Nagaprasanna directed the Principal Secretary of the Social Welfare Department, the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Rural district and the Panchayat Development Officer of Doddabelavangala panchayat to jointly and severally pay the cost amount of Rs 50,000 while the village panchayat has been directed to exclusively pay an additional Rs 50,000 as litigation cost to the petitioner.

The court also directed the authorities to grant all financial assistance and benefits to Nagamma that would flow from Section 13 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.