M A I N   N E W S

Tatas not to get Singur land back: HC
Subhrangshu Gupta
Tribune News Service

Kolkata, September 28
The Calcutta High Court today granted legal sanctity to the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act (SLRDA) and endorsed it as constitutionally valid.

The court also rejected Tata Motors’ petition, filed on July 20, challenging the validity of the Act passed in the Assembly on June 26 by voice vote in the absence of Opposition members.

The court today ruled that the Act, which was enacted in the interest of the public, did not violate legal norms. The government had also rightly recovered the land leased out to Tata Motors for the Nano car project. It can now return the land to the unwilling farmers.

But Tata Motors has been given time till November 2 to make a fresh petition to the higher court challenging today’s high court order. Till then, the land, now in the possession of the government, can be re-allocated or returned to the farmers, the order further stated.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata welcomed the judgment of the high court. She declared that the 400 acres at Singur would be returned to unwilling farmers as soon as the court’s clearance was obtained after November 2. In the remaining 600 acres, the Railways would set up a metro rail factory as decided earlier.

Tata Motors’ lawyer Siddhartha Mitra said he had referred a copy of today’s judgment to Ratan Tata in Mumbai. He hoped Tata Motors would make a fresh petition to the high court division Bench or directly to the Supreme Court.

In 2006, the West Bengal Government had acquired 997 acres at Singur besides Durgapur Expressway, about 50 km from here, for the Tata Nano factory.

After the SLRDA was notified, the state government took possession of this disputed land.

The Singur land dispute case was referred to Justice Saumitra Pal’s Bench on June 20 following a petition filed on behalf of Tata Motors after the SLRDA was passed in the Assembly on June 14. But Justice Pal withdrew himself from the case on personal grounds.

The case was allocated to Justice Indraprasanna Mukherjee. Under him, the first hearing was on June 26 and today, he delivered the judgment in favour of the state government.

The court appointed the DM and SP of Hooghly to arrange for the shifting of the company’s property still stored inside the plant. About the compensation, the district courts will finalise the deal with Tata Motors and the state government.

Mamata wins Assembly bypoll

Mamata Banerjee, in results declared today, won the Assembly bypoll at Bhowanipore by a thumping margin over Nandini Mukherjee of the CPM. She got 73,695 votes to Nandini’s 19,422 votes.

At the Basirhat (north) seat, TMC candidate ATM Abdulla defeated CPM candidate Subed Ali Gazi by a margin of 30,939 votes.

Public Works Department Minister Subrata Bakshi had quit the seat to make way for Banerjee, who was seeking her maiden entry to the state Assembly.

The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee congratulated Mamata over the phone for her landslide victory.

After losing the Basirhat (north) seat, the Left front strength in the Assembly was down to 61 and the CPM to 39 seats.