(1.) These are three Writ Petition Nos. 45334, 45386 and 48981 of 2004 filed under Art. 226 of the Constitution by way of public interest litigation. Writ Petition No. 45334 has been filed by the All India Manufacturers Organisation a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 whereas Writ Petition No. 48981 has been filed by the Mayor and former Mayor of Mysore City Corporation and the primary prayer made in these writ petitions is for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the State of Karnataka, its instrumentalities and its agencies for forthwith execute the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (for short, "the project"), in its entirety as upheld by this Court in H.T. Somashekhar Reddy Vs. Government of Karnataka and Anr., 2000(1) Kar. L.J. 224 (DB). Writ Petition No. 45386 has been filed by Sarvshri J.C. Madhuswamy and Srirama Reddy both of whom are elected members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and the third petitioner herein claims to be a social worker. Their primary grievance is that land in excess of what was required for the execution of the Project has been acquired by the State Government thereby depriving the agriculturists of their lands and that it allowed itself to be misrepresented in allotting the Project which was originally sanctioned in favour of a Consortium of American Companies to a new company registered as Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Project Limited (hereinafter called 'Nandi'). They allege that a big fraud was played on the State Government in getting the Project allotted to Nandi and the primary prayer made in the writ petition is for a mandamus directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct an enquiry into the manner in which the excess lands came to be acquired and also into the fraud/misrepresentation that was played on the State Government in allotting the Project to Nandi. Some incidental prayers have also been made in the writ petition. They want this Court to declare all acquisitions made beyond the peripheral roads around Bangalore which, according to them, are not required for the Project as illegal. Challenge has also been made to the mortgage deed in respect of the Government lands in favour of ICICI Bank which advanced some loans to Nandi. All the prayers made in this petition and in the other two petitions shall be dealt with in the later part of our judgment. We are disposing of the three writ petitions together because common questions of law and fact arise in them and also for the reason that Writ Petition No. 45386 is a counter to the other two writ petitions.
(2.) In pursuance to the notice issued by this Court the respondents in the writ petitions have filed their response. In Writ Petition Nos. 45334 and 48981 in which the prayer is for the implementation of the Project the contesting respondents are the State of Karnataka and Sri J.C. Madhuswamy who is petitioner 1 in W.P. No. 45386. Sri J.C. Madhuswamy filed an application under Order 1, Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure and got himself impleaded as a respondent in W.P. No. 45334. He has opposed the writ petitions but has not filed a separate written statement presumably because his writ petition (W.P. No. 45386) is itself a counter to the other two writ petitions. In W.P. No. 45386 filed by J.C. Madhuswamy and others the State Government is supporting the writ petitioners and has filed its written statement supported by an affidavit filed by the Under Secretary to Government, Commerce and Industries Department. The contesting respondents in this writ petition are Nandi which is impleaded as respondent 12 and Major Ramesh who is impleaded as respondent 21 and they have emphatically denied all the allegations made in the writ petition including those pertaining to fraud, misrepresentation and acquisition of excess land for the Project.
(3.) Before we deal with the allegations and the prayers made in the three writ petitions, it is necessary to refer to the background in which the project came to be allotted to Nandi and also to the previous litigation relating thereto.