Supreme Court to JD(S): Return party office to KPCC

Bangalore: In a huge setback to Janata Dal (Secular), the Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed the order of the Karnataka High Court that the iconic structure located on No. 3 Race Course Road in Beng­a­luru belongs to Kar­nataka Pradesh Congress Com­mittee (KPCC).

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Vikramajit Sen gave their verdict while dismissing the SLP filed by JD (S) party against the HC order, which ended the 30 year old legal battle.

It was Venkateswar, an advocate and general secretary of KPCC, who took the battle to court and eventually the iconic building has returned to KPCC.

The SC which has dismissed the plea of JD(S) party has however granted some relief to the regional party by directing it to vacate and handover the building to KPCC before Dec 31 of this year. Justice N. Kumar of the High court in October, 2013 had also dismissed the appeal of JD (S) claiming the ownership of the structure, with an estimated worth of over Rs 100 crore!

The high court had upheld the order of a city civil court in 2005 declaring that the KPCC is the owner of ‘Congress Bha­van.’

The scheduled property located on Race Cou­rse Road was donated by one Rangas­wamy to Benga­luru City Congress Comm­ittee in 1949. Later in the early 50s, the Mysore Pradesh Cong­ress Com­mit­tee built the present structure and christened it as ‘Congress Bhavan.’

When the property was being forcibly taken, the assistant commissioner to­ok over possession of the structure.

After the split in Congress party, the property changed several hands from Congress (Organi­sation) to the Janata Party, with the merger of Cong­ress (O) along with several other parties in 1977 during the emergency period.

Later Janata Party got the khata of the property transferred in its favour. This provoked the Cong­ress pa­rty to claim the ownership of the property by fling a case in 1982.

Later Janata Party split into JD(S) and JD(U) and the property rema­ined with JD(S). In 2005, city civil court ruled that the property belongs to Congress.