Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Jun 16: The state High Court, through a judgment delivered on Wednesday June 15, cleared land acquisition proceedings relating to building of a highway between the city and Mysore by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Ltd. The aggrieved land owners, however, have decided to knock the doors of the Supreme Court against this verdict.

A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice H Billappa, upheld the land acquisition process in all but one of the 74 cases referred to it. In case of some petitioners, the government has been given time to revise its petition to remove ambiguities relating to compensation distribution.

In a contempt of court petition filed in the Supreme Court in the past, the state government had said that cases pending in the state High Court were blocking its efforts to hand over land to NICE. On January 18 this year, the Supreme Court ordered creation of a special bench to hear these cases and deliver speedy verdict.

After a hearing extending to over three months, the division bench had reserved its judgment. Land owners and farmers in the city and near Mandya had questioned in the court, the processes of land acquisition and payment of compensation. NICE too had questioned the government’s action of cancelling allotment of a stretch of land earlier sanctioned to it.

The High Court upheld the cancellation of land earlier allotted to NICE on Tumkur Road here, for widening of the national highway. Seven acres of land in Madavara village, which was earlier given to NICE, was taken over by National Highways Authority of India, and the government had cancelled the order of denotifying this land in favour of NICE.