Karnataka: No new case against H D Deve Gowda, says NICE

Bengaluru: The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), the promoter of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, has said that no new writ petition has been filed by the state government or the company against former prime minister H D Deve Gowda. 

NICE said this in response to Gowda’s statement earlier this week that he had been made party to a Supreme Court writ petition in connection with the BMIC project. 

“The claim that (Gowda) is being ‘forced at this age’ into litigation is factually incorrect and misleading,” NICE said in a statement. “Neither NICE Ltd nor the government has instituted any fresh proceedings against him or against farmers”.

According to NICE, all matters currently pending before the Supreme Court “originate from proceedings initiated between 2009 and 2012 triggered by Deve Gowda’s own interventions and public statements”.

Gowda was not originally a party to the proceedings related to BMIC project, NICE said.

“In Jan 2009, while a writ petition filed by NICE Ltd challenging an altered road alignment was pending before the Karnataka High Court, Gowda personally circulated a letter and a publication to the court, despite not being a litigant in the case,” it said.

“The high court treated this act as interference in judicial proceedings and converted the letter into a public interest litigation (PIL), thereby making Gowda a party respondent,” NICE said. 

NICE said it subsequently challenged the HC orders before the SC.

“The Supreme Court granted interim stay on all further proceedings, issued notices to Gowda and others, and the matter has remained pending since then. The case is now listed for final hearing on Jan 21, 2026,” it said.