NICE’s contempt plea back in HC

NICE’s contempt plea back in HC
Deccan Herald

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reverted to the Karnataka High Court a contempt of court petition filed by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) to allow it to implead in a case relating to construction of a road across or around Gottigere lake.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reverted to the Karnataka High Court a contempt of court petition filed by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) to allow it to implead in a case relating to construction of a road across or around Gottigere lake.

The apex court Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Markandeya Katju directed the High Court to decide the case within two months without further adjournments.

NICE had questioned the rejection of its appeal (by the High Court) to allow it to be impleaded in the public interest litigation “as there was no scope for a third party in the contempt case,” but the division bench of the Supreme Court has noted that “it was not so”.

Gottigere panchayat advocate V A Mehta and State government counsel Altaf Ahmed submitted that NICE should not be allowed to be impleaded in the case. Justice Katju said it should be left to the court to decide the fate of the case.



Many parties

The court dismissed two other appeals seeking to be impleaded -- one by the Electronic City Industries Association and the other by local farmers.

Environmentalist Suresh Heblikar had moved the PIL in the High Court against the NICE decision to construct the road cutting across the lake. The State government then changed the alignment and allowed the road to be constructed by circumventing the lake.

It was when the Gottigere panchayat filed a case against the State government, opposing this, that NICE filed a contempt case against the State government, which was rejected by the High Court.

Of the 41-km road which links Tumkur-Hosur (National Highway 4 and NH 7), work on 39 km is complete and only the lake link is pending because of the litigation.