C. SHASHIKALA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these Writ Petitions, a challenge is laid to the acquisition of lands in question by the State Government under the provisions of Sec. 28 of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Act, 1966 for the benefit of the respondent- KIADB; the challenge is essentially structured on Sec. 24 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Act, 2013; petitioners also seek denotification of their lands from the fray of acquisition.

(2.) The respondents having entered appearance through their advocates vehemently resist the Writ Petitions making submission in justification of the acquisition and the allotment of the subject industrial sites in favour of the private respondent beneficiary; their essential contentions are that the acquisition being under 1966 Act, the provisions of sec. 24 of the 2013 Act are not invocable; even otherwise, the substratum for the invocation of said provision is lacking; the petitions are barred by delay and latches; cause of justice would be served more by dismissing the petitions than by allowing them; they also contend that the petitioners have not approached the court with clean hands, clean head and clean heart; they also submit that in more or less comparable fact matrix, two Division Bench judgments have denied relief to the litigants and therefore, these petitions also need to be accordingly disposed off; so contending, they seek dismissal of the Writ Petitions.

(3.) Since these petitions comprise of common questions of law and facts, they are taken up for final hearing with the concurrence of the Bar; having heard the learned counsel for the parties and having perused the Petition Papers, this Court declines to grant indulgence in the matter for the following reasons: