Bengaluru’s municipal body, the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), has proposed an amendment to the city’s building bye-laws, seeking to raise the permissible construction deviation limit from 5% to 15%. The proposal, currently in the draft stage, aims to ease compliance challenges faced by lakhs of property owners, offering a potential relief window. However, activists have raised concerns that the move could effectively legitimise widespread building violations.
According to experts, properties that were previously difficult to resell at market value due to such deviations may see renewed demand, as regularisation could also help owners secure e-khatas.
The deviation limit is the extent to which a building may vary from its sanctioned plan while remaining eligible for legal approval and regularisation.
What does the proposal say?
The proposed amendment to the 2003 bye-laws seeks to increase the permissible deviation limit from 5% to 15% across key parameters, including setbacks, floor area ratio (FAR), plot coverage, and building height. It also introduces a structured compounding fee mechanism, enabling property owners to regularise deviations by paying penalties and obtain Occupancy Certificates (OCs) that were earlier not permitted.
“Considering the hardships faced by many building owners in Greater Bengaluru, the government has taken an important and people-friendly decision to increase the permissible deviation limit in building constructions from the existing 5% to 15%,” the statement said. This would be done by modifying Clause 6 of the Building Bye-laws, 2003, it said.
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Why is the government proposing this?
The municipal body said the proposal is driven by ground realities, such as soaring land prices and space constraints, which have led many property owners to make minor to moderate deviations, such as reduced setbacks or additional built-up areas.
“Due to the high land prices in Bengaluru and various unavoidable reasons, it has been observed that many plot owners have constructed buildings with certain deviations from the sanctioned plan, often leaving reduced setbacks and facing difficulties. Under the current rules, only up to 5% deviation can be regularised,” the GBA said.
“However, in most cases, the deviation exceeds 5%. As a result, many such buildings are unable to obtain Occupancy Certificates from City Corporations, making it difficult to get water supply and electricity connections,” it said.
The proposal is currently open for public consultation. Citizens, developers, and stakeholders can submit objections or suggestions within 30 days of the notification (by April 30, 2026) to the respective city corporation offices across Bengaluru.
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What does it mean for property owners?
Experts said the proposed change could significantly ease the buying process. More properties may qualify for Occupancy Certificates, reducing legal and utility-related hurdles, while buyers of slightly non-compliant homes could face lower regulatory risks. They say this will also enable homeowners to sell properties that were previously difficult to sell due to deviations.
Satish Mallya, president of , said the proposed changes are largely aimed at individual properties, particularly standalone houses, where deviations are more common due to space constraints and high land costs.
“In reality, enforcement has been challenging, and many such properties continue to exist without proper approvals,” he said. These non-compliant buildings often struggle to secure essential services, such as water and electricity connections, creating practical difficulties for residents. The proposed amendments, he said, aim to address these ground-level issues by bringing such properties into the formal system.
Highlighting another key impact, Mallya said the changes could unlock access to e-khata registrations. “Properties with deviations earlier found it difficult to obtain e-Khatas because documentation is scrutinised very strictly in such cases,” he explained. With a clearer pathway for regularisation, many of these properties may now be able to secure e-khatas, improving their legal standing and making transactions smoother in the market.
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May increase building violations, experts say
Urban planning experts have cautioned that the proposal could end up encouraging further violations rather than curbing them, by effectively embedding regularisation within the building framework itself.
Drawing parallels with Karnataka’s earlier Akrama-Sakrama scheme, which was proposed as a one-time regularisation exercise but was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court in 2017, experts argue that the current proposal may become a ‘clearance by stealth’ for existing and future violations.
Pravalika Sarvadevabhatla, Associate Manager at Jana Urban Space, described the proposal as a structural shift in governance. “Raising the permissible deviation from 5% to 15% means that buildings constructed beyond sanctioned plans, whether in terms of setbacks, , or plot coverage, could retrospectively fall within compliance, without any structural re-certification or infrastructure impact assessment,” she said.
Experts argue that instead of acting as a deterrent, the amendment risks becoming a ‘clearance by stealth’ for existing and future violations.
Sarvadevabhatla said that Bengaluru’s drainage and infrastructure systems are already operating under stress, with the 2022 urban floods, which caused damages estimated at over ₹4,000 crore, linked to excessive built-up areas, encroachments on stormwater drains, and reduced percolation capacity. Increasing the deviation limit could exacerbate these pressures by further shrinking setbacks and increasing impervious surfaces, without mandating any compensatory infrastructure upgrades, she said.
“Compounding fees, typically calculated on guidance value, do little to deter developers. For many, it simply becomes a cost of doing business,” Sarvadevabhatla said.