The Supreme Court today expressed displeasure over a letter sent by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to the judges of the Karnataka High Court alleging corruption in the Bangalore-Mysore highway project and called as contemptuous a book on the subject circulated along with it.
“It is unfortunate that such a letter has been written,” a three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat said.
The Bench was unhappy that Deve Gowda’s letter also accompanied a book titled “Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) Project: A Case Study in Fraud and Collusion to Defeat Ends of Justice”, published by his party Janata Dal(S).
“We have not read the book but this itself is contemptuous,” the Bench, also comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar and A K Ganguly said. “Our judgements may be wrong and may be criticised but cannot be influenced,” it said. The Bench was hearing a bunch of petitions relating to the BMIC project including the petition filed by NICE challenging the High Court order to treat Deve Gowda’s letter as PIL.
After treating the letter as PIL, the High Court on Monday referred to Lokayukta to probe allegations of corruption levelled by Deve Gowda in connection with the BMIC project. The project estimated to cost over Rs 1,500 crore is aimed at constructing an 111 kilometre-long expressway between Bangalore and Mysore. It will be dotted with five satellite townships.
Ananthamurthy's counsel Prashant Bhushan alleged that the permission was for developing five townships, but NICE carried out commercial development in those areas for which there was no permission. However, the Bench questioned the timing of raising the issue saying why it was raised last year and not in 2006 when the main petition against the project had come before the apex court and more so when the project was going since 1999.
Bhushan said the issue could not be raised in 2006 as there was not sufficient material to substantiate the allegations. At this the court said it will amount to reopening of the case. "We will then have to rehear the whole matter," the bench said.
However, the allegations were countered by Solicitor General G E Vahanvati, who was appearing for the Karnataka government. He said allegations of fraud was taken by the High Court and the matter was decided.
After this submission by the SG, the Bench wanted to know from the petitioner whether something had happened after 2006.
