In a ruling with huge ramifications for hundreds of Bengalureans, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a batch of review petitions filed against its August 3, 2018 judgement which had directed the Karnataka government and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to go ahead and acquire 3,500 acres of land for developing Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and S Abdul Nazeer declined to reconsider its judgement in the layout issue which has been mired in controversy ever since it was proposed in 2008.
“We have perused the review petitions and record of the civil appeals and special leave petitions and are convinced that the orders of which the review has been sought, does not suffer from any apparent error warranting its reconsideration,” the bench said in its order passed on May 2.
In its 2018 judgement, the top court had taken strong exception to alleged “connivance of influential political persons or otherwise” to exclude large tracts of land (about 650 acres) from acquisition for formation of the layout proposed during the regime of then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
The court had also appointed former Karnataka High Court judge, Justice K N Keshavanarayana, to conduct an inquiry for “fixing responsibility” on the officials of the BDA and the state government.