SC stays HC orders on BMIC

Infrastructure project: High Court order stayed

The Hindu

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the judgment of the Karnataka High Court directing Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd. (NICE) to go ahead with the construction of the Rs. 2,250-crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

The apex court on Thursday stayed the other portions of the judgment relating to the prosecution of the Chief Secretary, K.K. Misra, and the Under-Secretary in the Commerce and Industries Department, M. Shivalinga Swamy, for perjury and withholding documents relating to the project.

A three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, R.C. Lahoti, Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice G.P. Mathur, stayed the May 3 High Court judgment after hearing counsel for the State, Sanjay Hegde, and counsel for NICE and others.

Counsel for NICE said that the stay of the judgment would result in stay of the execution of the project and pleaded for some interim order to protect them.

The Bench, therefore, asked the parties to file their response to the State's Special Leave Petition in 10 days and gave liberty to them to approach the vacation Bench of the apex court for any interim relief.

In its SLP, the Karnataka Government said the impugned judgment suffered from several errors, viz., "It directs the compulsory use of State's power of eminent domain, even in the case of land which the State's own expert committee classifies as being in excess of the requirement for the public purpose."

"It quashes the reports of the expert committee despite there being no specific prayer made by anyone. It misreads the entire plea of the State in respect of fraud committed against it. It does not examine any arguments of fraud against NICE only because it assumed that incorrect affidavits had been filed on behalf of the State. It does not examine at all, the validity of an unsigned consent and acknowledgment agreement, despite pleas being taken by the State under Sections 62 and 63 of the Contract Act and Article 299 of the Constitution."

The SLP said that as a result of the judgment, the project covering over 20,000 acres had to be implemented as expeditiously as possible. "This is despite the glaring fact that more than 2,450 acres of land in the environs of Bangalore are not only found to be in excess of the requirement for laying the Mysore-Bangalore Expressway but, as a matter of fact, the developer, Nandi, has clearly evinced its intention to deal with the land for commercial exploitation... "