NICE asked to explain land acquisition charges

The Supreme Court on Thursday, asked M/s Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE) to respond to the charge that they had obtained 4,285 acres of additional land for building a fifth township.

NICE is undertaking the ambitious, multi-crore, Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, asked senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi who represents the company, to file a reply chart within two weeks to the charges made by anti-corruption activist T J Abraham.

Abraham, in his arguments, contended the grounds raised by him did not arise for consideration in the writ petitions; Or decided on by the Karnataka High Court in its judgement on April 7, 2016. Singhvi countered him by maintaining that the issues were the same.

“We however feel, it would be in the fitness of things if the respondents specifically meet the ground A of the special leave petition wherein the petitioner has raised as many as 12 allegations, which according to the petitioner, were never raised earlier,” the bench said.

The court posted the matter for further consideration on September 5.

The petitioner has raised questions of illegal addition of the fifth township on 4,285 acres, and another illegal increase of 1,880 acres of land acquired.

He further contended the records were manipulated to show lesser extent of government lands to allow the promoters to obtain government lands at a lease rate of Rs 10/- per annum per acre.