The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday quashed acquisition of eight acres of land for the Electronics City Phase-IV while terming the process as “gross arbitrariness”.
As a result of the passing of this order Electronics City Phase-IV would be spread over 39 acres of land as against the originally notified area of 224 acres of land in 2003 during which time the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) issued preliminary notification for acquiring land.
In the final notification, the KIADB in May 2007 notified 138 acres and later it was reduced to 48 acres and 23 guntas, including the eight acres the acquisition of which has been quashed by the court.
In his order, Justice Anand Byrareddy pointed out that the area identified for the Phase-IV was reduced at regular intervals for various reasons. Among the reasons were acquisition of some land by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), change of land use by the BDA, allotment of some land to other projects, existence of a tank in the land notified and deletion of particular area at the behest of the government due to delay in acquisition.
“The extent of land has been progressively and liberally whittled down to infinitesimal parcel, and such reduction still continues,” the court observed.
The court noted that the KIADB could not demonstrate that quashing acquisition of eight acres of land belonging to Chinnamma and others would affect the contiguity of phases of the Electronics City industrial layout. The owners of this land had alleged arbitrariness in acquisition process pointing out exclusion of certain land without reasons.
Upholding their contentions, the court said the KIADB could allot industrial plots to five or six firms seeking allotment of plots.
