By IANS,
New Delhi : Supreme Court Tuesday turned down the plea of K.T. Plantation, which had challenged the acquisition of the Roerich and Devika Rani Roerich Estate of yesteryears actress Devika Rani and her husband Svetoslav Roerich in Karnataka by the state government.
The constitution bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia upheld the Roerich and Devika Rani Roerich Estate Acquisition Act, 1996 enacted by the Karnataka legislature to protect the 465-acre estate of the famous Russian painter Svetoslav and his wife.
Under the act, the Karnataka government took over in 1996 the estate in Bangalore to preserve the valuable trees, paintings and arts gallery of the artist couple.
Svetoslav had sold a part of the estate to K.T. Plantation.
Justice K.S. Panickar Radhakrishnan said the public purpose was an inbuilt attribute of the land acquisition as provided under Article 300 of the Constitution.
Svetoslav died in 1993 while Devika Rani died in 1994.