The much-awaited Supreme Court hearing on the latest affidavit of the Karnataka government in the controversial Bengaluru-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project could not take place on Thursday as Justice Cyriac Joseph one of the judges of a three-member bench withdrew from the case. Justice Joseph, who had been Chief Justice of
Karnataka high court a few years ago had passed some orders in the case there and thus recused himself form the bench.
As a result, Justice V.S. Sirpurkar, who was heading the bench, referred the case to the Chief Justice for reconstituting another bench. This came as a disappointment to the parties, waiting eagerly for Thursday’s hearing after the Karnataka government had filed a new affidavit of June 30 rejecting the demand for 776 acres of more land by construction company Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) within Bengaluru municipal limit.
The government also had requested the apex court to free chief minister B.S. Yediurappa from the chairmanship of a high-powered special committee set up by the top court for monitoring the implementation of the project and instead appoint the state chief secretary as its head.
The CM was given the responsibility as chairman of the committee by the Supreme Court specially to ensure speedy implementation of the project, delayed due to the prolonged litigations.
The affidavit was mainly based on the decisions taken by the high-powered committee, headed by the chief minister in its recent meeting.
The affidavit stated that the 776 acres land required by NICE was coming in the area of peripheral roads, while it already had got 475 acres “excess” land in 2008.