NICE: SC rejects State plea

NICE: SC rejects State plea
Deccan HErald

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petition filed by the Karnataka Government and others in the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) case paving the way for construction of the highway by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).

The petition was dismissed by a three-member Bench of the apex court consisting of Justice S B Sinha, Justice Dalvir Bhandari and Justice K V Balakrishnan. Commenting on the dismissal of the review petitions, NICE said in a press release that the company will strive and do its best to expedite the project so that benefits of the project are brought to the people of Karnataka as soon as possible.

“The company requests all political parties to support the BMIC project irrespective of their political differences, since we have promised that our road /facilities will give the same quality of service to all Kannadigas without any discrimination,” it added.


Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, who appeared for NICE, said after the ruling that at least now, the State Government should allow execution of the project.

Cleared four times

“The project has now been cleared four times in public interest — twice by Karnataka High Court and twice by the Supreme Court,” he remarked.

The petitioners had moved the apex court against its judgement of April 20, 2006 wherein it had given the green signal to the controversy-ridden project. However, the State Government filed for review of the judgement alleging that NICE had secured 2,150 acres of land around Bangalore in excess of what was actually required for the project. This excess land at today’s prices was worth over Rs 30,000 crore, it claimed maintaining that the excess land NICE had acquired was outside the framework agreement of the project.

The petition enclosed a copy of the letter written by Governor T N Chaturvedi and stated that the Governor, a former Comptroller and Auditor General, too had opined after his own inquiry that the project has been given excess land.

It may be recalled that while clearing the project, a SC Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice B N Srikrishna and Justice Dalveer Bhandari had slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the Karnataka Government to be payable to NICE and a fine of Rs 50,000 on petitioners Janata Dal (United) MLA J C Madhuswami and Sriram Reddy of the CPI and others who had appealed against the High Court judgement of May 3, 2005. “There was no merit in the appeal filed by the Karnataka Government and others. They came out with frivolous arguments against the project,” Justice Srikrishna, pronouncing the judgement for the Bench, had said.

“We find that the High Court judgement is not liable to be interfered with,” he said.



NEXT LEGAL REMEDY

The Government can now file a “curative petition” before the Supreme Court. The provision for curative petition came into existence in 2002 when a Constitution Bench held that the Supreme Court may entertain a “curative petition” and reconsider its judgments to prevent abuse of its process, to cure gross miscarriage of justice, say legal experts. However, if the Court comes to the conclusion that curative petition was “without merit and vexatious” it can impose exemplary costs on petitioner.

Those filing curative petition must establish a violation of natural justice. Petitioner would be entitled to relief, if a member of the Bench that passed the judgment failed to disclose his connection with the subject matter; or, if the parties provide apprehension of bias.

ON THE BMIC TRACK

Date Event

20-02-95 MoU signed between govt and consortium.

21-04-95 Formation of high-level panel under chairmanship of PWD minister.

29-04-95 Meeting with then chief minister Deve Gowda on BMIC

20-11-95 GO issued on implementation of BMIC project on BOOT basis.

03-04-97 Framework agreement signed between govt and NICE

23-11-99 Agreement signed between NICE & KIADB for transfer of govt land to NICE

18-12-03 Single judge bench clears Expressway, but cancels land

acquisition for townships 20-01-04 Division bench stays single judge order.

04-11-04 Formation of KC Reddy panel for re-examining the project.

07-03-05 Interim order by the High Court

31-03-05 Chief Secretary K K Mishra files affidavit before HC

03-05-05 Final verdict by HC, orders prosecution of chief secretary and

expediting of project.

12-05-05 SC stays prosecution of chief secretary 18-07-05 SC allows work on project, but rules against alienation of land.

13-12-05 SC modifies order and allows NICE to alienate land

20-04-06 SC clears all the hurdles and gives green signal to the project.

02-11-06 SC dismisses the review petition filed by Karnataka Govt