The High Court of Karnataka has dismissed a PIL petition, which had questioned the allotment of 18 acres of land in the sprawling 1,112 acres belonging to the Bangalore University to various educational institutes associated with the Central government.
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order rejecting the petition filed by K.B. Vijayakumar, a city-based advocate.
“The permissions granted by the State government do not suffer from any infirmity,” the Bench said, while pointing out that the petitioner had failed to make out a case of either a violation of statutory right or any fundamental right in the pleadings.
The petitioner had questioned leasing of 15 acres of land to the Inter-University Centre for Yogic Sciences (IUCYS), two acres to the regional centre of the Centre of Council for Architecture and Development, and one acre to the Central Board for Secondary Education to set up its regional office.
“The allotment of the land on lease has not been made for any commercial purpose. The BU conducts courses in yogi sciences and therefore, the land has been leased out to IUCYS, which supplements the interest of the university. Similarly, setting up of regional centre of Council for Architecture will help the research activities of architecture department of BU,” the Bench said, while noting that out of a total area of 1,112 acres, 18 acres had been allotted on lease subject to conditions.
The Bench also said that the permissions to lease out land were granted to the BU in consonance with the provisions of the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.
