The High Court of Karnataka on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition which has questioned allotment or leasing out the lands within the Jnana Bharathi campus of Bangalore University (BU) to various public and autonomous institutions for establishing their offices.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha passed the order on the petition filed by Swayam Jagruti Seva Ttrust, Mudalapalya, Bengaluru.
Various bodies
The petitioner has pointed out that lands were allocated in favour of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Inter University Center For Yogic-Science, Central University Of Karnataka, Central Board Of Secondary, Council Of Architecture, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, University Of Visvesvaraya College Of Engineering, and National Law School Of India University.
The petitioner has sought a direction to the institutions, to whom the lands were allocated, not to cut any tree for construction work and not to damage the ecological biodiversity on the campus.
Lay restrictions
A direction has also been sought to the State authorities to lay down restrictions on cutting down trees on the campus and for the construction of multi-storeyed buildings in place of existing buildings instead of utilising additional lands for new constructions. It has been contended in the petition that instead of using ecologically sensitive areas for infrastructure development within the campus, the authorities should use about 35 acres of the land, which was part of the lands of the campus and was recently recovered from the encroachers, for the BU and other institutions.
The petitioner has also questioned the recent permission granted for felling several trees for the construction of building for UGC’s PM-USHA (Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan) project.
Published – November 21, 2025 09:27 pm IST
