Supreme Court refuses to reconsider Karnataka plea on land owned by Maharaja of Mysore

The Supreme Court has declined to reconsider its July 26 order by which it had rejected the Karnataka government's contention against a high court judgement that declared ownership of 1561.31 acres of prime land at Mysuru in favour of Maharaja of Mysore.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi dismissed a review petition filed by the state government.

"We have gone through the grounds raised in the review petition and do not find any error apparent on record to justify interference.This review petition is, therefore, dismissed," the bench said, in its order passed on November 23.

The court also pointed out it had already considered submissions advanced by the rival parties at some length, and had then affirmed the view taken by the high court on December 15, 2020.

Also Read — Supreme Court nixes Karnataka's plea against HC order on land belonging to Maharaja of Mysore

With the latest development, the government's efforts to get control over the land parcel suffered a setback. The order also comes as a relief to the people who recently got the land mutated in their favour, as the government had made it subject to the outcome of the review petition.

The state had claimed that the HC's order was against accession treaty of 1950 and British government's decision of 1881-1883 declaring the area as 'kharab' land meant for public purposes. The HC had then overturned the district commissioner's order that declared those as government land.

Rejecting the state's plea, the court had then said that the state government can't wake up after decades when the land has already been purchased by the people.

The top court also said that the state acquired the land parcels after 1950, which means it has acknowledged that these lands were of the Maharaja.

Of the 1563.31 acres, more than 600 acres comprised government and public properties, such as lakes, forest land, state Administrative Training Institute (ATI), State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Mounted Police, jockey quarters, roads, zoo, horse park, race course, Lalith Mahal Palace, helipad, shooting range, masjid, motor section of police department, public lakes, such as Karanji and Tavarekatte.

Advocate Nishanth Patil had then appeared for residents of Kurubarahalli Village, Vasanthi Hegde and other parties.

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