NICE allowed to sell, alienate BMIC lands

NICE allowed to sell, alienate BMIC lands

The Hindu

Deve Gowda, Revanna scuttling the project, NICE counsel tells Supreme Court

# Sale, alienation or mortgage subject to the outcome of the pending appeals
# On July 18, the court restrained the developer from selling, alienating lands
# Government-constituted panel says 2,450 acres of land will remain surplus



New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Limited to sell, alienate or mortgage the lands in its possession to raise funds for executing the Rs. 2,250-crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

By an interim order on July 18, the apex court, while allowing Nandi to go ahead with the project, restrained the developer from selling, alienating or mortgaging the lands acquired for the project.

A three-Judge Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice B.N. Srikrishna modified the order on Tuesday and said the sale, alienation or mortgage would be subject to the outcome of the appeals pending in the apex court. It said prima facie it appeared that the issues raised in the appeals were covered by a Division Bench order of the High Court passed in 1998 and affirmed by the apex court in 1999.

In these circumstances, while giving liberty to NICE to sell, alienate or mortgage the lands, the Bench made it clear that there must be a clause in the sale/mortgage deed that such conveying would be subject to the result of the appeals. The appeals were listed for final hearing on January 10, 2006.

When the matter came up for hearing, senior counsel for NICE Dushyant Dave pleaded for modifying the July 18 order as the company had invested nearly Rs. 400 crores for the first phase of the project.

Mr. Dave said that the developer entered into an agreement with the State in 1997 for executing the project, and till now no orders had been passed for rescinding the agreement. After the coalition government came to power in 2004, the former Prime Minister Deve Gowda wrote a letter to his son, H.D. Revanna, who is Minister for Public Works and Energy, that the project required reconsideration since several people will be affected due to acquisition of land. He said that, subsequently, the State Government constituted a committee, which gave a report that 2,450 acres of land will remain surplus and will not be required for the project. He alleged that for political reasons, Mr. Deve Gowda was scuttling every project. He alleged that due to the interference of Mr. Gowda, Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayanamurthy had to quit as Chairman of Bangalore International Airport Limited.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Association of Industries, endorsed the submissions of Mr. Dave and said: "Both the father [Mr. Gowda] and his son [Mr. Revanna] are standing in the way of the project envisaged in 1992." Appearing for the Karnataka Government, senior counsel Anil Divan took strong objection to the reference made against Mr. Gowda contending that it was not the subject matter of the appeals and it should not be raised here. To a specific question from the Bench, whether the State Government wanted the project to go on or not, he said the project could be allowed to go on with a condition that 2,450 acres of surplus lands (within the 20,193 acres) not needed for the project should not be alienated by the company.