SC dismisses plea on Karnataka land reforms amendment

 
A bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia, Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar said if anybody wanted to challenge the provision of the land law, they could approach the Karnataka High Court.

Sanjay Parekh, who appeared for Indian Council of Enviro-Legal Action, submitted that the bench might grant permission for another person to represent Nanjundaswamy in future proceedings, as he  passed away on February 3, 2004 in Bangalore.

However, the bench said the petition had been pending before the apex court since 1995 and has lost its relevance.

Nanjundaswamy had challenged an amendment to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act (1961), which removed norms on land ceiling to allow aquaculture in Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts.

Along with this, horticulture, floriculture and agro-based industries were also exempted from the provision which prohibited people from keeping a large chunk of land with themselves.

Challenging the diversion of farm land for shrimp cultivation in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Indian Council of Enviro-Legal Action and many other voluntary agencies had filed the Public Interest Litigation before the Supreme Court.