Akrama-Sakrama Scheme:

It is a sad reality of India that there are many illegal buildings that exist and are built every day. It is an obvious fact that the prolific growth in population in urban areas is leading to the rising demand for housing options in big cities. Almost 80% of the buildings are illegal constructions. Akrama-Sakrama scheme, introduced by the state government aims to bring out a revolution in this situation. The term “Akrama-Sakrama” is made up of two Sanskrit words meaning Akrama and Sakrama which means “illegal-valid/regular. The scheme “Akrama-Sakrama” has been introduced by the Karnataka Government on December 31, 2013, to enable the regularization of the properties that have violated the building norms. In 2013, there were petitions that were filed against this scheme but on December 13, 2016, the High Court had dismissed all the pending cases that are against this scheme and that has now created a way for the Akrama-Sakrama scheme to be implemented in the Karnataka state. Since the unauthorized properties were not on the records, the government was facing various issues in the collection of taxes and that leads to a loss of revenue. The main intention of this scheme is to convert the illegal properties or those properties that are not regularized into a legal or regularized property by charging a penalty on those buildings. 

There are more than 2 lakh properties in Bangalore that are illegal. There are many reasons that this would exist, but these properties will always impact the government and the residents of the city. In this scheme, the Karnataka government has introduced “one-time regularization” for the properties that are formed before October 19, 2013, which means these properties will get an Occupancy Certificate (OC) from the municipality. The properties in this scheme will have all the advantages like:

∙         The property will get all legal approvals as an authorized property

∙         The properties will get all the permissions to partake in good resale and easy home loans. 

∙         Will be permitted to convert their existing Form B extract to a government authorized A Katha certificate.

Illegal constructions that are eligible for regularization under Akrama-Sakrama scheme include:

∙         Properties that are built on the land owned by the owner without an approved building plan.

∙         Properties that are built on the land owned by the owner but deviate from the approved building plan.

∙         Land use violations in contravention to section 14 and 14A of the Act.

∙         Unauthorized subdivisions in contravention to section 17 of the Act.

∙         Unauthorized development of buildings in contravention to Section 14 and 15 of the Act.

∙         All buildings which are completed with occupation certificate or PID Numbers or door number issued shall also be eligible for regularization under these rules. 

Illegal constructions that are not eligible for regularization under Akrama-Sakrama scheme include:

∙         Properties that are built on Government lands.

∙         Properties that are built on areas that are not designated for construction by zonal regulations and revised master plan.

∙         Properties that are built on lands earmarked for parks or civic amenity in approved layouts.

∙         Properties that are built-in basement or usage in contravention of bye-law or zoning regulations.

∙         In the agricultural zone of an approved master plan or green belt, the area declared under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 

Important features of Akrama-Sakrama scheme:

∙         The Act allows regularizing all the properties that violate building norms.

∙         For residential buildings, the setback limit is 50% for one time regularization and for commercial buildings, the setback limit has been set at 25%.

∙         In this scheme, after paying a penalty to the government illegally formed plots can also be regularized

Rules:

∙         These rules are called the “Karnataka Town and Country Planning Rules, 2014”

∙         They will come into force from the date of their publication in the official gazette.

∙         They shall apply to all the unauthorized properties that are registered before 19th October 2013.

Unauthorized development means the development carried out under the following categories:

∙         Unapproved and violated development: which means the development was made without obtaining prior approval from the authority and also in violation of the master plan and zonal regulations. 

∙         Approved and violated development: which means the development carried out after obtaining approval from the competent authority but made in violation of the master plan and zonal regulations.

∙         Unapproved and non-violated development: This means the development carried out without obtaining prior approval from the competent authority but, the development carried out in accordance with zonal regulations. 

Regularization of change of land use:

Regularization of development of buildings with land use violations shall be subject to the following conditions namely:

∙         Land use violation shall be examined with reference to the master plan as in force at the time of regularization.

∙         Change of land use shall not be permitted in lands reserved for parks and open spaces, roads, agricultural purposes unless such exemption or specific provision is made in the master plan or zoning regulations. 

Conditions for regularization of unauthorized subdivision of land or plot:

Regularization of unauthorized subdivision of land or plot shall be subject to the following condition, namely:

∙         Only individual plot shall be considered for regularization which is registered before 19th October 2013.

∙         No unauthorized subdivision or layout which does not have access to public roads shall be regularized. 

∙         Buildings that are constructed by violating the road widening line shall not be considered for regularization unless the portion of the building projected beyond the road widening line is demolished. 

Conditions for regularization of floor area violations:

∙         The floor area of the excess built-up area constructed against the approved plan shall be considered separately for calculating the percentage of violations. Any area exempted from the floor area ratio in the approved plan. Such areas shall not be taken into consideration for deriving the percentage of the violation.

∙         FAR violations against the approved plans but within the zoning regulations or building, bye-laws may be regularized on payment of the difference of prescribed fee under section 18 of the Act subject to limitations specified in section 76FF.

Who is eligible to apply for regularization?

The applicant must be an owner or an authorized representative of the owner or the association of owners.

Application for Regulations:

 

• The application in Form-1 for regularization under these rules shall be filled by a person who is entitled to it to the competent authority concerned within one year from the date of a notification made by government calling for application along with the calculated fee on self-assessment subject to payment of shortfall if any intimated by the competent authority and document specified below.

• Details related to regularization of land use violation, an unauthorized subdivision of plot/ layout and unauthorized development of buildings shall be entered in the respective portion of the application form.

• Every applicant who desires to get his unauthorized development regularized shall submit the application along with copies of the following documents:

• Title documents

• RTC/ Katha

• NA Conversion order with the sketch

• Survey sketch from the Revenue department/sketch of urban property ownership record.

• Site plan showing details of the surroundings, details of abutting roads, buildings therein, services provided (power supply and water supply with respective bills, underground drainage connection).

• Key plan or location plan.

• Photograph of development.

• The approved layout or building plan.

• Site plan or building plan showing the details of unauthorized developments authenticated by the Architect or Engineer.

• While making an application under sub-rule, the applicant shall pay scrutiny fee and regular fee payable along with regularization fee calculated on self-assessment subject to payment of shortfall, if any, intimated by the competent authority, subject to a final decision in respect of pendency of any case before the tribunal, civil court, high court any other court or any order or judgments passed by any such court, or tribunal in respect of such property. 

• The owners of all “unauthorized development” made during the period eligible for regularization shall mandatorily apply for regularization under these rules. 

 

Violation after submission of application:

During verification, if it is found that the applicant has undertaken further additions or extensions to the existing building, then such applications shall be rejected, duly forfeiting the entire regularization amount and necessary legal action may be initiated against the owner of the building.

Procedure for regularization:

 

Applications shall be scrutinized in the following procedure, namely:

• On the receipt of the application for regularization, the competent authority shall scrutinize the application on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis.
• The competent authorities may also utilize the services of as many officers and staff including technical personnel, namely, Architect or Engineers or Town Planners to take up scrutiny and inspection as may be required for the scrutiny. 
• In case of joint ownership of the development, the competent authority may issue a notice to the owners, if any, who have not joined the application for regularization, informing the status of the application.
• While scrutinizing the application, the competent authority may issue a notice to the applicant for any incomplete details provided or for any clarifications required. If the applicant is the owner of a single or few premises in the building having multiple premises, the competent authority may issue a notice to the owners or association of owners, if required for any details. 

Registration charges:

 

S.NO
1	Urban	INR 5000 – 2500
2	Rural	General category – INR 3000
		SC, ST – INR 1500

 

Regularization fee:  

 

• The regularization fees specified in these rules shall be in addition to the regular fees or charges normally levied and collected by the authority. 
• The regularization fees for the land use violation shall be five times the fees prescribed under section 18 of the Act and the rule 37-A of the Karnataka Planning Authority rules, 1965.
• Fees prescribed for regularization of unauthorized developments of layouts of sites (applicable for both converted and non-converted lands). The fees payable shall be as follows:

S.NO	Site Area (Sq. m)	Prescribed amount per sq. m. in (Rupees)
		Bangalore Urban and Rural Districts	Other Corporation Areas	Other Areas
1.	Up to 60	40.00	30.00	20.00
2.	< 60-120	160.00	80.00	50.00
3.	Above 120	600.00	250.00	150.00

• The fee specified above is in addition to the fee to be collected by the Planning Authority under section 18 of the Act. In addition to the above fee three percent (3%) for the site area measuring up to 60 sqm., five percent (5%) for the site area measuring 60 to 120 sqm, and 15% for the sital area measuring above 120 sqm. As per the market value of land, fees shall be collected in case parks and open spaces and civic amenities are not provided.   
• In the case of agricultural lands, regularization shall be considered after conversion under sector 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964.

Fees prescribed for regularization of unauthorized development of buildings:

Fees prescribed for setback violations for residential buildings shall be as follows:

S.NO	Percentage of violation	Regularization fee per sq. m. of total violated area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of land (%)
1.	Up to 25%	6
2.	>25% up to 50%	8

 

Fees prescribed for setback violations for non-residential buildings shall be as follows:

S.NO	Percentage of violation	Regularization fee per sq. m. of total violated area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of land (%)
1.	Up to 12.50%	20
2.	>12.50% up to 25%	35

 

Fees prescribed for FAR violations for residential buildings shall be as follows:

S.NO	Percentage of violation	Regularization fee per sq. m. of total violated area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of land (%)
1.	Up to 25%	6
2.	>25% up to 50%	8

 

Fees prescribed for FAR violation for non-residential buildings shall be as follows:

S.NO	Percentage of violation	Regularization fee per sq. m. of total violated area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of land (%)
1.	Up to 12.50%	20
2.	>12.50% up to 25%	35

 

Note: in case of setback and FAR violation against the approved plan but within the provisions of Zonal Regulations, the Regularization fee shall be the difference of prescribed fees under section 18 of the Act.

Fees prescribed for buildings constructed in non-converted agricultural lands shall be as follows:

S.NO	Type of use	Regularization fee per sq. m. of the total built-up area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of the building (%)
1.	Residential	2.0
2.	Non- Residential	4.0

 

Note: if the setback and FAR are violated, for violated portions, prescribed fees shall be paid.

Fees prescribed for building/portion of building constructed without the building plan approval but developed as per the Zoning Regulations:

S.NO	Type of use	Regularization fee per sq. m. of the total built-up area in accordance with the percentage of the market value of the building (%)
1.	Residential	2.0
2.	Non- Residential	4.0

 

Note: if the setback and FAR are violated, for violated portions, prescribed fees shall be paid.

Scrutiny fee:

 

• Scrutiny fee shall be collected by the competent authority at the rate of Rs 1/sqm. on the total plot area. In case of plot in an unauthorized layout, Rs 2/sqm. on the total floor area of buildings.
• The scrutiny fee shall be made available to the competent authority for the respective unauthorized development applied for regularization.

Action to be taken in case of unauthorized development which is not regularized:

 

Action contemplated under sections 15 and 17 of the Act, shall be taken in the following cases, namely:

• Unauthorized development for which no application for regularization is received within the prescribed time limit (including unauthorized developments with occupation certificate)

• Unauthorized developments which are not eligible to be regularized under these rules.
• Unauthorized development for which regularization fees have not been paid within the stipulated time limit prescribed in these rules (after receiving intimation from the Competent Authority).

What will be the impact on builders and buyers because of this scheme?

 

There are numerous properties in India that are constructed on an illegal basis. Properties that have their status as “illegal constructions” will attract lower prices and after the property gets regularized, the value of the property will be increased. In the long run, the buyers may end up paying more to regularize the illegal constructions. professional builders will never have the burden of penalty fees to the ultimate buyers.