In a strong signal that it will not tolerate stalling of a major infrastructure project just because of opposition apparently at the behest of politics, the Karnataka High Court today cleared the Rs 2,250-crore four-lane Bangalore-Mysore expressway exactly as it was conceived eight years ago. And in an unprecedented step, ordered that Chief Secretary K K Misra be prosecuted for ‘‘perjury and withholding’’ documents. The indictment by the two-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice Naudip Kumar Sodhi and Justice B Padmaraj, couldn’t have been clearer. The court observed that it was ‘‘clearly of the view that the change of stand by the state government on the project was not because of fraud or misrepresentation but because a new Public Works Department Minister sent a note on July 6, 2004, to his principal secretary pointing out allegations made by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda that excess land has been acquired.’’ Gowda’s son H D Revanna holds the PWD portfolio. The bench also quashed a government order to set up two panels to probe whether land allotment irregularities took place in the project—as was alleged by Deve Gowda—and directed the state to go ahead with work on the expressway as per the 1997 framework agreement. The judges also directed the court’s Registrar General to file a complaint to prosecute Chief Secretary Misra and Under-Secretary M Shivalingaswamy under Section 344 of the CRPC after finding them guilty of ‘‘perjury’’. THE ROADBLOCK STORY
