The KIADB has lost an appeal in the high court with respect to its acquisition of two acres of land in northern Bengaluru.
The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) had filed the appeal after a single judge last year stopped it from acquiring the land in survey number 40/360 at Bandikodigehalli village, Jala hobli, Bengaluru North taluk, near the Kempegowda International Airport.
A division bench headed by Justice Alok Aradhe upheld the order, noting that the KIADB had failed to explain why it did not complete the land acquisition process on time.
The KIADB set out to acquire the land by issuing a preliminary notification about it under section 28 (1) of the KIADB Act in November 2006. The final notification was issued in May 2007 under section 28 (4) of the same act. The KIADB then went slow on the process.
The landowner approached the High Court in 2016 when the KIADB failed to pass an award with respect to his property and compensate him. On April 1, 2021, a single-judge bench ruled that the said land acquisition proceeding had lapsed due to the “inordinate and unreasonable delay”. Curiously, the KIADB passed the award on March 31, 2021, just a day earlier.
In the appeal, the KIADB blamed the delay on the seizure of original records of the said land by the Lokayukta police in 2010 as part of an investigation against Itasca Software Development Private Limited. The KIADB argued in the court it was unable to compensate landowners because the documents were in possession of the investigating officer.
The Lokayukta police were probing an alleged scam in the disbursement of compensation to farmers. Itasca allegedly sold farmers’ land to the KIADB with fake documents.
The division bench was not convinced. It pointed out that the KIADB passed the final notification for the land acquisition in 2007 while the Lokayukta police seized the records only three years later.
“There is no explanation on record for not concluding the proceeding pertaining to land acquisition in respect of the land in question for a period of three years. Admittedly, till March 31, 2021, the award was not passed by the appellant (KIADB). Therefore, the single bench has rightly held that the acquisition proceedings initiated in pursuance of the preliminary notification dated November 3, 2006, and the final notification dated May 7, 2011, have lapsed,” the bench said.
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