Court surprised at the ‘speed’ of BPS mela

A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan on Friday expressed surprise at the speed at which the ‘BPS mela’ for regularisation of buildings was taking place, especially with regards to structural safety certificates. It ordered for production of some documents by Monday. The Bench was dealing with a writ petition filed by Prashanth Kumar in public interest.

The petitioner challenged the action of the officers in authorising graduates in civil engineering to issue structural safety certificates. These certificates are mandatory while submitting the application for regularisation of unauthorised , illegal buildings in municipal areas of the State. The petitioner said that only post graduates in structural safety should be permitted to issue such certificates. He cited press reports wherein it was alleged that large scale manipulation in issuance of these certificates was taking place.

The petitioner lamented that the safety certificate had become a farce and would endanger the lives of people.