The High Court on Thursday commented that the whole case relating to the transfer of the Karnataka State Tourism Corporation’s land on Airport Road for the purpose of Diamond District Residential Complex was full of fraud.

The comment came from Justice Ram Mohan Reddy who ordered the State Government to give information about the steps the government had taken on the enquiry committee report in the matter, within nine weeks.

The judge opined that the whole transaction had been illegal, while also directing the Tourism Corporation to produce concerned records at the next hearing.

The report of the enquiry committee constituted as per the direction of the Court, had stated that former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde, former BDA commissioner H V G Reddy, IPS officer K Sreenivasan, Tourism Corporation former chairman D S Sreekanthamurthy, Commissioner Bahadur Shetty and other officers had joined hands to sell the 18-acre land worth crores of rupees for a paltry sum of Rs 18 lakh. AG Uday Holla said, the government was taking action against the guilty.

Fine imposed

The Division Bench, headed by Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph imposed Rs 1,000 costs each on two of the appellants before it, while condoning the delay in filing their appeals.

The Bench observed that the appeals were not filed within the period stipulated in the Limitation Act for filing writ appeals against single judge orders in writ petitions and that the reasons given for the delay were not satisfactory.

The Bench ordered that the costs imposed shall be payable to Bangalore Mediation Centre. The Chief Justice orally commented that if such unreasonable delay were to be found, the Court would have to think of imposing costs in all such cases.