SC slaps notices on State babus

SC slaps notices on State babus
DH News Service, New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to top bureaucrats of Karnataka, for not abiding by its order to implement the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).


The apex court asked the Karnataka Chief Secretary; the Additional Chief Secretary, Public Works Department; the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department and the Secretary, Urban Development to respond in six weeks to a petition filed by the project promoter and contractor, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE), alleging that the State government had violated the court order of April 20, 2006.

A bench of judges Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said, “The officials are being issued notices to file their replies on the contempt application.”

Appearance exempted

The court exempted top officials from appearing in person before it and adjourned the matter till August second week.

Karnataka government advocate Sanjay Hegde sought the adjournment on the plea that the State is under the Central rule and that there is no elected government to take a decision.

A decision in the matter could be taken only after an elected government takes over the administration, he added.

NICE advocate Ashok Desai countered the arguments and submitted that the previous government headed by Chief Minster H D Kumaraswamy had deliberately delayed the execution of the project.

Contempt notices have also been issued to the Special Deputy Commissioner, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board; the co-ordinator, BMICP and the Member-Secretary, Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority.

These officials are “guilty of having committed willful disobedience of this court order by diverse acts attributable to them, individually and collectively and therefore guilty of contempt of court and are liable to be proceeded against and punished in accordance with law”, said the petition filed by the NICE.

Karnataka had contended that it had initiated a new global tender process on September 17, 2007. It alleged that the contractor was not interested in implementing the project as conceived originally and despite the direction of the apex court, the execution was lagging behind by years due to the contractor’s fault.

According to the framework agreement (FWA) signed on April 5, 1997 between the Karnataka government and the developers, the NICE had the right to saleable land of 5937.3 acres in five townships, which was worth Rs 31,250 crore at the lower spectrum of the present value, whereas the cost to construct the expressway, peripheral road and link road would be a maximum of Rs 3,000 crore.

The company had also been given the right to collect toll tax for 30 years, which would be in terms of billions of rupees, the application filed earlier by Karnataka had said.

HC ruling

The Karnataka High Court in its judgment delivered on September 21, 1998 in the Somashekhar Reddy case held that the company was entitled to sell only 45 per cent of the available land in the five townships and the roads would be handed over to the government after the lapse of the lease period.

The Supreme Court on April 20, 2006 upheld the Karnataka High Court order and directed the parties to stick to the clauses of the original agreement.

Smooth execution

The apex court had also directed the Karnataka government to ensure the smooth execution of the project.

Nice trouble

*In the dock are the chief secretary, the additional chief secretary of the Public Works Department, the principal secretary of the Revenue Department and the urban development secretary

*lCase relates to an SC order of April 20, 2006