Karnataka HC calls NICE road project 'biggest scam', seeks forensic audit

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday, July 29, observed that the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project "appears to be one of the biggest scams in the State" and said it is a fit case for an independent assessment, forensic audit, and investigation into alleged fraud and other criminal acts.A Division Bench of Justice D.K. Singh and Justice T.M. Nadaf, however, expressed doubts over whether such an investigation would take place, observing that the State itself appeared to be "an accomplice" in allowing project developer Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) to allegedly earn huge illegal profits by diverting land, capitalising assets, drying up lakes, collecting toll in violation of the Framework Agreement (FWA), and retaining a large land bank without paying compensation."The NICE project has done nothing but benefit its proponents in an astronomical way at the expense of the landowners and the public interest in general," the Bench observed.The remarks came while dismissing appeals filed by NICE and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) against a July 4, 2025, order of a single judge, which had quashed the acquisition of several acres of land after KIADB failed to pass compensation awards despite more than 23 years having elapsed since the final acquisition notifications.The Bench also remarked that there was "nothing nice about the NICE project except that the farmers have been robbed of their lands and the livelihood of generations without payment of compensation" guaranteed under Article 300A of the Constitution.Rejecting NICE's argument that landowners could not challenge the acquisition because the Supreme Court had earlier upheld the project, the Court clarified that the present cases concerned the failure to pass compensation awards for over two decades after the acquisition notifications and more than 15 years after the apex court upheld the legality of the Framework Agreement. Such an inordinate delay rendered the acquisition proceedings unsustainable, it said.The Court further observed that the project had failed to serve any public purpose. "The project has not done any public good or served any public purpose except to benefit the project proponents with unimaginable wealth. Though conceived for a public purpose, it has served only the private interests of the project proponents," the Bench said.Questioning the State government's inaction despite alleging several violations by NICE before the Court, the Bench said it failed to understand why the government had neither reviewed nor cancelled the project when NICE had "utterly failed" to achieve its objectives of developing five townships and a 111-km expressway between Bengaluru and Mysuru.The Court also rejected NICE's contention that delays by the State in acquiring and handing over land had stalled the project. It termed the claim "incorrect" and "false", noting that an affidavit filed by the government before the Supreme Court stated that 554 acres of excess land had been handed over to NICE for the project.