SC backs Karnataka HC, says BMICP land acquisition ‘stands abandoned’

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has declined to interfere with the Karnataka High Court's 2017 orders, which quashed land acquisition proceedings in respect of a group of land owners for the purposes of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma dismissed civil appeal filed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd, after hearing senior advocate Atmaram Nadakarni for the appellant, senior advocate Kiran Suri for the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board, S A Ahmed, Additional Advocate General for the State of Karnataka, and senior counsel Vikas Singh for the respondents (land owners), at some length.

The court found that it was admitted at the bar that after the preliminary notification under sub-section (1), Section 28 of the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act, 1966 was issued on June 2, 1999, no declaration under sub-section (4) thereof followed such notification.

"In such view of the matter, the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru was justified in holding that the acquisition proceedings which had been initiated stands abandoned by the State of Karnataka. We, therefore, see no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court,'' the bench said in its order on April 22, 2026.

However, the court clarified that the order of dismissal would not preclude the Karnataka government or KIADB to initiate fresh proceedings for land acquisition, including the lands of the respondents, in conformity with the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013, Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act, 1966 (as amended), as the case may be, for the requirements of the NICE.

But the compensation would be payable in terms of the Fair Compensation Act, the court said.

The lead respondent Lakshman claimed to be the absolute owner of land bearing, measuring 1 acre 35 guntas and the land, measuring 19 guntas of Mallasandra village, Uttarahalli Hobli, Bangalore South Taluk, under a registered sale deed in 2004. 

It was contended on a representation by the vendors that the land had been duly converted from agricultural to nonagricultural use and the petitioner has been in physical possession of the lands in question. 

It was only in the year 2015 that the petitioner has learnt in retrospect of a notification having been issued under Section 28(1) of the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act, 1966. He filed a writ petition, contending that the acquisition proceedings have not been completed including the issuance of the final notification even after the lapse of 16 years. 

The single judge bench of the High Court allowed the writ petition, saying acquisition proceedings not having progressed from the year 1999, it was deemed that the State has abandoned the land in question from acquisition proceedings and it would be available to the land owner for his use and occupation.

A division bench upheld the single judge's order and subsequently dismissed the writ appeal by the KIADB.