“The matter is pending before the court. At such a sensitive stage, the State Government, through the Forest Department, has issued a notice and imposed a deadline. This amounts to interference with judicial proceedings and is contrary to law,” Kumaraswamy said.

“Moreover, the officer has no jurisdiction to issue such a direction. HMT will challenge the order before the courts,” he said.

Special package for HMT

Kumaraswamy claimed that the order to recover 430 acres of land came at a time when his ministry was trying to obtain a central government package for HMT to cover sustained losses incurred over many years.

“With the objective of breathing new life into HMT, I have been making efforts to convince the prime minister and the Union finance minister to approve a special package. HMT comes under the Ministry of Heavy Industries, which I head. Just when the package was close to being announced, the state government, with malicious intent, got such a notice issued,” he alleged at a hurriedly convened press briefing.

“The officer himself has valued this land at nearly Rs 15,000 crore. That naturally raises the suspicion that someone has set their sights on this property. Many have already plundered HMT land with the blessings of this very government. I have all the documents showing when 175 acres of HMT land were sold and where the transactions were registered,” he said.

‘Real estate mafia grabbed HMT land’

The Union minister—who is a leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), an ally of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance—alleged that HMT’s land was looted by the real estate mafia between 1999 and 2004 and that this stopped only when he became the chief minister for the first time in 2006.

“I stopped the sale of this land because I was determined that it should never fall into the hands of land grabbers or real estate mafia. Under the government of those who promised to turn Bengaluru into Singapore, HMT land was torn apart and devoured like vultures, without the slightest restraint,” said the JD(S) leader, who is a bitter rival of Shivakumar.

Kumaraswamy said the DCF had issued the order barely 15 days before his retirement.

“Once among India’s most prestigious and profitable industrial enterprises, HMT is today facing difficult circumstances. Yet, it continues to manufacture machinery for critical sectors, including space, defence, and research. Even today, there is substantial overseas demand for HMT machines. HMT watches continue to enjoy tremendous demand,” he said.

The land recovery controversy revolves around nearly 599 acres of land in a plantation in the Peenya Jalahalli region of North Bengaluru, which was declared a forest in 1896 and later transferred to HMT in the 1960s to create industrial infrastructure through a donation deed by the Bengaluru district collector.

When top forest department officials faced scrutiny

Last year, the Congress government suspended a senior Indian Forest Service officer for allegedly facilitating the handover of the Rs 15,000-crore forest land, held by HMT, to third parties including private entities.

The government ordered the suspension of the IFS official for filing an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court in 2020 “without obtaining the approval of the then minister-in-charge or sanction from the state cabinet” for permission to denotify 443.6 acres of land granted to HMT at the Peenya Jalahalli plantation.

Initially, the government had issued notices to former additional chief secretary Sandeep Dave, IAS (retired); former principal secretary Vijay Kumar Gogi, IFS (retired); former principal secretary Smitha Bijjur, IFS; and former chief conservator of forests R Gokul.

In recent years, large portions of the land given to HMT by the forest department for industrial purposes have been used to facilitate major real estate projects in connivance with state and central government officials.

“This plantation is owned by HMT. It is illegal for the organisation to sell to government departments/organisations and private individuals. However, the fact that forest officials did not make any attempt to recover the land and, without even drawing the attention of the Cabinet, submitted an interim application to the Supreme Court seeking denotification in 2020 is a cause for doubt,” then forest minister Eshwar Khandre said last year.

In January 2025, the government ordered that since 281 of the 599 acres of land donated to HMT is vacant land “without any building”, the forest department must take possession of the vacant forest land.

Khandre further said the HMT land was alienated and that real estate companies had built flats there. “Shooting of serials and films is going on. The land is being used for commercial purposes. How this was allowed is the question,” he added.

Over 200 acres of the HMT land has been handed over to private players and others even as the PSU has collapsed over the last four decades.

One of the major transfers of land happened in 1999-2004, when a Congress government was in power, leading to the construction of apartment complexes by some of Bengaluru’s big real estate developers.

Kumaraswamy has also previously questioned the government’s intentions in taking back the land granted to HMT. “What do they plan to do with the land if they take it back from the factory, and which builder do they intend to give it to?” the Union minister asked last year.

“Who gave permission to sell 200 acres of land formerly belonging to HMT? Who was in power in the state from 1999 to 2004? In 2006, when I became chief minister, I ordered that even an inch of HMT land cannot be sold,” Kumaraswamy said.