The Karnataka High Court has issued a clear directive: building plans can only be sanctioned according to the rules and regulations that are current at the time of approval, not based on the rules that were in place when the application was initially filed.
This order was delivered by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi. They overturned a May 2024 judgment by a single judge, who had previously ruled that the regulations applicable were those prevailing on the date of the application’s submission.
The case stemmed from Sangam Enterprises, which, in 2013, received approval from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for a commercial complex with a multiplex, including a basement, ground, first, second, third floors, and a terrace, conforming to a 15-meter height limit.
Subsequently, after acquiring Transferable Developmental Rights (TDR), the firm sought a modified plan from the BBMP in 2014. This modified plan aimed to add two more floors and requested a 50% relaxation in the setback area, citing provisions of the revised master plan then in force.
However, the BBMP did not process the modified plan, insisting on various no-objection certificates (NOCs) from different authorities. Following this, Sangam Enterprises reapplied for the modified plans in 2017, having secured the necessary NOCs. They continued to demand that the plan be sanctioned with a 50% setback relaxation, as per the rules from 2014, even though the relaxation for setbacks had been reduced to 25% through an amendment in 2015.
The single judge had sided with the firm, instructing the BBMP to issue the modified plan as requested. However, the division bench found this conclusion to be inconsistent with earlier Supreme Court verdicts from 1992 and 2004. These apex court judgments had supported the Calcutta High Court’s stance that ‘building plans can only be sanctioned according to the building regulations prevailing at the time of sanctioning.’