SC quashes Karnataka land acquisition, orders restoration to owners

The Supreme Court on Monday, 26 October, quashed the 1988 acquisition of about 59 acres of land near Bengaluru for a cooperative housing society, holding that the process was vitiated by fraud and bribery. A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran found that private intermediaries had lured the state government to approve the acquisition without any approved housing scheme or layout plan.

The court directed that possession of the land be restored to the original owners, regardless of whether they had challenged the acquisition. Landowners must refund any compensation received from the government, without interest, though amounts received in private transactions need not be returned. The bench enhanced costs payable to each petitioner to Rs 50,000, but deleted a direction to initiate contempt proceedings against government officers, citing the passage of time.