Govt 'misled' court on Palace Road widening: Ex-Maharaja's daughter

Indrakshi Devi, daughter of the last Maharaja of Mysuru, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, told the High Court on Monday that the State government was “misleading” the court by not widening the Palace Road in Bengaluru despite an interim order by the Supreme Court to go ahead with the work.

The royal family owns huge swathes of land along Palace Road (the road around the Bengaluru Palace). Filing an interlocutory application, the landowners stated that the government as well as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had “misled” the High Court when it disposed of a PIL on widening the Palace Road on July 20, 2015.

The government had told the court that it could not widen a road parallel to Palace Road given the pending litigation in the Supreme Court. The litigation pertains to the acquisition of the palace of the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysuru.

The Supreme Court passed an interim order on November 21, 2004, on the government’s petition to widen the road, saying it can go ahead with the road-widening after issuing the TDR (Transfer Development Rights) to the landowners.

This fact, however, was suppressed and the court misled, Indrakshi Devi maintained. A division bench of acting Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna orally directed the government and the BBMP to follow the Supreme Court directive, and posted the matter for order on Tuesday.