The Karnataka government has appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the Justice B C Patel Commission of Inquiry — set up to probe the alleged allotment of excess land to the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) — to proceed.
In a petition filed before the apex court, the State argued that the panel should be allowed to initiate a preliminary fact-finding inquiry so as to enable the government to start suitable legal proceedings.
The Supreme Court had, on July 21, 2006, decided not to stay the proceedings of the Patel panel as the State government submitted that it would not go ahead with the setting up of the commission against NICE which was to construct the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC). NICE had filed a petition for the stay of the judicial inquiry proceedings. The case will come up before a three-member bench on Friday.
The petition submitted that while it has not proceeded with the judicial probe, recovery of two important files has shown that between July and September 1999, an additional 2,289 acres of land for sale in toll road section and townships of the BMIC project was illegally sought to be made available to the NICE.The petition said the additional saleable land amounting to 2,289 acres was worth about Rs 30,000 crore.