The High Court on Monday extended the interim stay of the bidding process for civil works to form BDA’s Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout till March 19.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna asked the petitioners V Manjunatha and others to file a rejoinder to the BDA’s objections.

They have challenged BDA’s notification inviting tenders for civil works (like laying roads) without taking possession of the whole area. Senior counsel B V Acharya, representing the BDA submitted that there is no illegality in respect of allotting the tenders to the contractors. “They were the lowest bidders. More than 50 per cent of the land has been acquired and the remaining land will be acquired in the due course of the tender period, which is two years. Any litigation to that effect will be mitigated,” he argued.

Earlier during the hearing, the petitioners contended that the BDA had issued notification for acquisition of a large extent of land measuring 4,043.27 acres. The Acquisition Department had handed over approximately 1,441 acres to the BDA. As per the abstract as on February 16, only in 1,356.22 acres’ possession has been handed over to the Engineering Section.

“The BDA, without taking possession of the entire acquired land and without approval of the layout plan, has proceeded to form the roads in the layout. Roads cannot be laid without taking the possession of the entire land,” they argued.

Further, they contended that the BDA has negotiated the rate for five packages in excess of `1,208.89 crore of the amount put to tenders.

“If the tender is accepted for higher rates, the burden will be shifted to the general public,” they maintained.

When the BDA invited tenders in 2010, it said that it needed Rs 991 crore to carry out civil works. But in the recent notification, it stated that it needs Rs 2,200 crore for this. “The tender amount has been raised to collect funds for the elections,” they alleged.

They further argued that the BDA has been allotting works only through short tenders. However,  for the first time, pre-qualification bids were offered in the Rs 100- Rs 250 crore category combining the entire project without even naming the projects, they charged.

Government told to file fresh affidavit in statue case

Bangalore: The High Court on Monday directed the state government to file a fresh affidavit in connection with a civil contempt petition filed by city based-advocate A V Amarnath against Chief Secretary S V Ranganath and MD of BMRCL N Sivasailam for not following the court’s directions on shifting Dr B R Ambedkar statue to some other place on Vidhana Soudha premises.

A Division Bench headed by Justice N K Patil passed the order after Rangananth filed an affidavit seeking the quashing of the petition as the order was modified.

In the affidavit, Ranganath stated that the court’s order on December 12, 2012 has been modified after the government filed a petition seeking more time and even that case was also disposed of with the directions to shift the statue. He sought more time to shift the statue and the dismissal of the contempt petition. The Bench directed the government to file a fresh petition regarding the steps it has taken so far and adjourned the case.