The Bangalore Mediation Centre (BMC) in Bangalore, India, has given up on mediation after 14 unsuccessful sessions were held last year in the dispute between ITC Ltd. and the Wakf Board.  Although mediators provided several recommendations for the two parties to reach a resolution, the dispute concerning the ITC Windsor, an exclusive hotel, remains unresolved. 

Beginning in 2011, the dispute was sent to Bangalore Mediation Centre (BMC) as Shivaraj V. Patil and R.V. Raveendran (both retired Supreme Court judges) were selected as mediators.  In addition, Laila Ollapalli, a mediator working with BMC was appointed to assist in mediating the case. 

The circumstances surrounding the dispute involved an initial appeal that was filed by ITC Ltd. challenging a court order that approved its eviction from the hotel property by the Wakf Board in 2002.  The Wakf Board submitted a claim that the lease that had been given to ITC Ltd. had “no sanctity in law”; therefore, the construction and presence of the hotel was in violation of the lease terms.

In such, the property was labeled as “public property,” thereby making ITC Ltd. an illegal occupant of the property.  ITC Ltd. denies the illegality of its occupancy and holds its position that the lease was a lawful one.  The parties were then sent to mediation in an attempt to resolve the matter without further litigation.

Now that mediation has failed, a Division Bench of the High Court, of which Justice K.L. Manjunath and Justice Ravi Malimath were a part, stated in an order submitted on April 4, 2013, that despite the appeal, its pendency won’t allow the Competent Officer to make any move due to the KPP Act. However, the Bench members did state that if the order to evict ITC Ltd. was indeed appealed, ITC Ltd. would then need to request that the High Court change the orders relating to the eviction.