State to allocate Bangalore Turf Club land for new Karnataka High Court complex
The Karnataka state government announced on Monday that it will soon pass a resolution to allocate the Bangalore Turf Club land for the construction of a new Karnataka High Court building complex.
Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty shared the government’s decision orally during a high court hearing. The announcement was made during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by petitioner Sharan Desai, who requested the state to grant 30 or more acres of land in Bengaluru for a new high court complex.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha accepted the Advocate General's request to relist the matter in a month to allow him to present further details on record. The high court has scheduled the next hearing for August 28.
During a previous hearing, the bench noted that any new building constructed must be capable of catering to the court's infrastructure needs for at least the next 30 to 50 years.
The proposed relocation of the high court would also require moving the Bangalore Turf Club. In February, the Karnataka Cabinet approved leasing 110 acres and 20 guntas of land at the Kunigal Stud Farm near Tumakuru to the Bangalore Turf Club for a period of 29 years to conduct horse racing.
This relocation plan is currently facing a legal challenge. Urban conservationist Vijay Nishanth filed a petition against the move, claiming the shifting order is vitiated by the complete non-application of the Environment Impact Assessment notification of 2006. The high court has already issued a notice seeking the state government’s response to this petition.
The high court currently functions out of the historic 'Attara Kacheri' building, located inside the lawns of Cubbon Park, directly opposite the Vidhana Soudha. The building originally housed the general and revenue secretariat of the erstwhile Mysore state and was renamed the High Court of Mysore in 1929. State administrative offices operated out of the building until 1956, when they moved to the Vidhana Soudha.
The idea of relocating the high court to a larger site was previously mentioned on October 26 last year by Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who was serving as deputy chief minister at the time, during a citizen outreach event held at Cubbon Park.
