The Hindu : Front Page : Order on BMIC project stayed

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Thursday, Jul 10, 2008
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Order on BMIC project stayed

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed an order passed by the Election Commission directing the Karnataka Government to cancel its order authorising an empowered committee to take steps for the completion of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

By an order on May 8, the commission citing the Model Code of Conduct in force in view of the Legislative Assembly elections directed the Chief Secretary not to take any action on the project till May 28, the date on which the election process was completed. The petition by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) is directed against this order.

A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice H.S. Bedi stayed the order after hearing senior counsel Dushyant Dave and counsel K.T. Anantaraman and issued notice to the Election Commission and the Karnataka Government.

NICE, in its petition, said it had spent over Rs. 1,000 crore on the project.

The Government had issued a direction to the empowered committee pursuant to the contempt notice issued by the Supreme Court in March this year.

It said the order issued by the commission without hearing any of the parties involved was unwarranted and without jurisdiction.

The commission’s order had far reaching implications and consequences of immense magnitude as it had misconstrued the Government’s direction as a policy decision.

Important questions

It said the special leave petition raised important questions of law, including whether the commission had any power whatsoever in respect of a matter clearly covered by a judgment of the Supreme Court and to stultify the implementation of the judgment; whether the commission which was obliged to act in aid of the directions of the Supreme Court could have interfered with the directions and stopped implementation of the project.

The petition sought quashing of the impugned directions and an interim stay of its operation.

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