Karnataka High Court upholds the hundred metre prohibited area and two hundred metre regulated area around centrally protected monuments

19 October 2026

Justice M.G.S. Kamal of the Karnataka High Court upheld the constitutional validity of Sections 20A, 20B and 20C of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, inserted by the 2010 Amendment Act. Under these provisions the prohibited area extends 100 metres in all directions from a centrally protected monument, and the regulated area extends a further 200 metres beginning at the limit of the prohibited area. The ruling came in Writ Petition No. 10451 of 2018 (GM-RES), filed by B.R. Ramakrishna, whose application to build on a vacant portion of his land was rejected by the Archaeological Survey of India. The land lies about 59 metres from the outer perimeter wall of Madhugiri Fort, a centrally protected monument of the Vijayanagara and Nayak eras, which placed it within the prohibited area. The court rejected the argument that the restrictions amount to expropriation requiring compensation. It partly allowed the petition because the Archaeological Survey of India documents did not show how the 59 metre distance had been established, and directed the authorities to reconsider the representation after a fresh survey of the area within three months.