The Karnataka High Court on Thursday stayed the preliminary notifications issued by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) to acquire about 100 acres of land at various places on the outskirts of Bangalore City.
Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh passed the interim order while dealing with petitions filed by M Krishnappa and other land owners. The petitioners claimed that acquisition of their fertile land, situated near the peripheral ring road, would affected them seriously as they are engaged in cultivation of various crops. They said the acquisition of land would help only a selected industrialists.
The notifications were issued to acquire land at Niduvanda village near Nelamangala, B K Halli, Bagalur, Hoovinamaakanahalli, Banandur village near Bidadi.

Local body elections
The High Court on Thursday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a public interest litigation and an appeal filed against the single judge order of staying the election notification for nine weeks.
A division bench comprising Justice D V Shylendra Kumar and Justice Jawad Rahim passed the order on the petitions filed by N Manjunath of Mysore.
The petitioner claimed that the order of the single judge was against the law laid down by the Supreme Court as the latter had held that process of election can not be stayed after issuance of notification and the elections to local bodies should be held without delay, except during unavoidable circumstances.

Special rules stayed
The HC on Thursday stayed the special rules framed by the State government to fill up 703 posts of junior and assistant engineers in the Public Works Department through an in-house selection process by superseding the regular recruitment process through the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC).
With this order, the ongoing process of selection, which commenced from May 9, has to be stopped forthwith. A division bench comprising Justice D V Shylendra Kumar and Justice Jawad Rahim passed the interim order on the petitions filed by A V Ravikumar and another person from Shimoga.
The petitioners have questioned the validity of Karnataka Public Works Services (Special Recruitment of Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers) Rules 2007. They alleged that the Government had illegally superseded the powers of the KPSC which was constitutionally empowered to select candidates for these posts.
The rules empowered the Government to form committee headed by the Engineer-in-Chief to select the candidates by conducting interviews without holding any exam. The Committee, constituted under the rules, had in March invited applications for the post and had commenced process of the interview from May 9. 
The Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, before which the petitioners had questioned the rules, had rejected their contentions. Following this they have moved the H C.