SC to hear BMIC case today

SC to hear BMIC case today
The Times of India

Bangalore: All eyes will be on the apex court on Tuesday as the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) case will come up for hearing. A three-member Bench, comprising Justices Ruma Pal, A R Lakshmanan and Dalveer Bhandari, will hear the arguments from both sides.

The Bench will, in fact, hear arguments for three appeals, one from the Karnataka government and the rest from land owners. The issues involved are whether the project should be continued in its current form, whether Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) has deviated in land acquisitions and whether or not NICE is rightly representing the project as per the memorandum of understanding.

The appeal made by the Karnataka government against the Karnataka High Court order calling for criminal proceedings over the chief secretary K K Misra will not be part of this hearing. This appeal has been separated out from others and has been kept pending.

TRACKING THE CORRIDOR PROJECT
In a dramatic ruling, the Karnataka HC had on May 3 held that the BMIC project, covering 20,000 acres, had to be implemented expeditiously as per the original plan. This was in response to a petition by the All-India Manufacturers’ Organisation which sought court intervention in ensuring speedy execution of the project.

The same Bench had passed stiff orders in another case where in land owners, in a public interest litigation, alleged that NICE had acquired excess land and had committed fraud by mis-representing. Dismissing the petition, the Bench asked the state government to move criminal proceedings against the chief secretary and another senior official and withhold the project documents.

On May 13, on an appeal by the state government and the landowners, the Supreme Court stayed the Karnataka HC order. However on July 18, the apex court said work on the expressway could continue but land earmarked for the the project could not be alienated.

On November 18, 2005, a divisional Bench of the Karnataka HC dismissed a set of petitions challenging the acquisition by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board and also the curvature of the road near a tank in Gottigere village.