On Monday, the Karnataka High Court expressed its shock and discontentment over the letter addressed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to the Chief Justice and other judges of the High Court regarding alleged counterfeit actions by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) in implementing the BMIC project.

“Deve Gowda had written to me on January 8, 2009, enclosing a booklet. After seeing the letter I was really shocked, and discussed the same with my brother judges. Surprisingly, they also received the same letter. When the matter is pending before this Bench, how can he write such a letter?” the Chief Justice said, while hearing the PIL on NICE peripheral road project.

“If Gowda had any grievances, let him come to the court or file a PIL. This is not the way to approach the court. But, we took the letter in a positive way by treating it as a PIL,” said the Chief Justice.

However, senior counsel Dushyant Dhave, appearing for NICE opined that “the letter is nothing but interference in administration of the independent judiciary. The Court should take serious note of the matter and issue contempt notice to Gowda.”

“The Supreme Court had passed strictures against Gowda for his interference in the project. Now, by writing a letter, he disrespected the judicial process. If any ordinary citizen had written such a letter, the court would have initiated contempt proceedings against them,” Dhave remarked.